India’s leading operator Bharti Airtel is reportedly adopting the TD-LTE framework for its 4G network, which will be among the first in the country.
The operator is believed to have secured a contract with ZTE for the network’s construction, which will begin with an initial buildout in Kolkata covering around 850 sites. With the contract supposedly worth around US$300 million, this initial network would presumably expand across other telecom circles.
Bharti currently owns Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum in four of India’s regions – Kolkata, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab. This spectrum will be used to offer 4G services. Licences for BWA spectrum were sold last year at the same time as 3G licences, with Bharti acquiring spectrum worth INR3314.36 crore (US$750 million).
An anonymous source was quoted in an Indian national newspaper as saying: "If ZTE successfully implements Bharti's 4G network rollout in Kolkata, it may be the lead contender for supplying LTE gear for the remaining three circles as well, although it is likely to face stiff competition from Chinese rival company Huawei for the Karnataka network deal."
An unnamed ZTE executive provided more information, saying that the vendor would provide around 850 sites in the initial stages of the rollout in Kolkata. "There has been no discussion yet on execution of the other three circles, but we are hopeful of landing those equipment contracts as well,” added the source.
Of the two versions of LTE, unpaired time-division (TD-LTE) is less widespread than the paired FDD-LTE, but is taking hold in many emerging markets, having recently been deployed in various Middle Eastern countries. Chinese operators are also trialling the technology.
TD-LTE is purportedly around four times faster than current Indian 3G networks, but there are concerns among some industry observers that inadequate backhauling capabilities could adversely affect LTE rollouts.
