4G Footprint Almost 100 Percent In Karna, Says Airtel

Leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel Tuesday announced its 4G footprint was almost 100 percent in Karnataka.

The company also said it intended to add 13,000 new mobile sites and lay 4,500 kms of optic fibre cables across the state by the end of this fiscal.

“In Karnataka, we have come to a stage we are 100 per cent on our 4G footprint. It is 99%. We are the only operator to have 2G, 3G and 4G biggest coverage across the state,” Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel in Karnataka C Surendran told reporters here.

The company had also created immense amount of capacity to handle ever increasing high data connectivity, he said adding it had taken up its network transformation programme called Project Leap.

Airtel aims at deploying pre-5G MIMO technology across major business and residential hubs in the state to step up high speed data experience, he said.

“This year we are adding another 13,000 sites (for telecom towers) to our network. We already have 36,000 sites, he said adding the company was planning to have about 45,000 sites by the end of this year in Karnataka circle”.

He claimed Airtel remained the market leader with a 50 per cent share in Karnataka and 29 million mobile users.

To expand its base in the state, Airtel planned to pump in Rs 1,000 crore under project Leap.

Replying to a question on the ongoing price war with Jio, he said the business would not be viable if the prices go down further. – Business Standard