India’s first 4G network is scheduled to go live later this month, with the market-leading operator Bharti Airtel launching services in Kolkata. The firm’s CEO Sanjay Kapoor confirmed that numerous other launches would follow shortly, covering the Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka telecom circles.
A number of vendors are believed to be involved in the deployment; while ZTE is reportedly rolling out the Kolkata network, each of the build-outs in the other three circles is to be handled by a different vendor – NSN, Ericsson and Huawei.
The deployment uses broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, which was auctioned in 2010. Bharti acquired licences for 20MHz of spectrum in the four aforementioned telecom circles for the sum of INR33.14 billion (US$650 million).
Several other operators acquired BWA spectrum at auction, and are planning launches of TD-LTE networks. Reliance Industries in particular is lining up a nationwide deployment, having obtained the requisite spectrum for US$2.5 billion.
In addition, Qualcomm, Augere and Tikona Digital Networks are planning TD-LTE launches. However, the prohibitive cost of LTE-compatible devices is currently an obstacle to the technology’s uptake – a typical device would cost around four times the Indian average monthly GDP per capita at US$500.
