Airtel enhancing spectrum portfolio in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu

Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator is enhancing its networks’ capacity with the help of the additional spectrum bought in the recently held auctions. The company has bolstered its network capacity in Southern India by deploying additional spectrum in two major states of the country including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. With the deployment of more spectrum, Airtel now holds the largest spectrum bank both in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Further, the users of the operator living in these states will now be able to experience better speeds and connectivity.

Airtel has just deployed 5 MHz of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band in Tamil Nadu. With the deployment of this additional spectrum, the telco’s total spectrum holdings in Tamil Nadu has reached 65 MHz which is the highest for any operator in the state.

Airtel had acquired large blocks of spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands in the recently held auctions. The telco has spectrum in varied bands including the 2300 MHz (TD LTE), 2100 MHz (FD LTE), 1800 MHz (FD LTE), and 900 MHz (LTE 900) in Tamil Nadu and thus is in a good position to offer 5G services as well.

The telco has further added 11.2 MHz of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band in Karnataka. With the deployment of this additional spectrum purchased in the auctions, Airtel’s total spectrum holdings in Karnataka has reached to 68.8 MHz. Again there is no other operator that has the size of spectrum holdings that Airtel does in the state.

Airtel has spectrum in the 2300/2100/1800 and 900 MHz bands in the state and stands ready to offer 5G services as well.

The addition of spectrum in the portfolio of Airtel across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka will help Airtel keep its premium position in Southern India. Further, the customers of Airtel will be able to experience less congested networks during peak hours of the day. The size of the spectrum that Airtel has added in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will help it boost services in prominent and highly populated cities such as Bangalore and Chennai. TelecomTalk