New Delhi, April 10
The country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel launched India’s first 4G service in Kolkata today. Airtel’s 4G (TD-LTE) network was launched by Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal.

Airtel, which is a leading global telecom services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has launched the service on a state-of-the-art network based on TD-LTE, making India one of the first countries in the world to commercially deploy the cutting-edge technology.

With this launch, India joins the most advanced telecom markets in the world and marks the beginning of a new chapter in the country’s telecom success story.

The launch will trigger a new phase of accelerated equitable and inclusive economic growth through proliferation of broadband services as envisioned in the draft National Telecom Policy. It provides for download speeds as high as 40 Mbps and the upload speed of 20 Mbps.

Incidentally, ZTE has built 4G network capable of offering speed of 100 Mbps. Today’s launch is the first in a series of launches planned across the country by Bharti Airtel. It has chalked out its 4G rollout strategy where it will launch 4G services in Bangalore in the next 30 days and has selected Huawei as the network supplier for the Karnataka circle.

In the next phase, the company will launch LTE services in Pune and Chandigarh. Airtel will focus on both individuals and enterprises.

The company has selected Nokia Siemens for Maharashtra, while it is yet to decide the network partner for Chandigarh.

Commenting on the launch, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of the company said, “Today’s launch is a major milestone for India and Airtel. Over the past 15 years, Airtel has been at the forefront of India’s telecom revolution and has set the technology trends in India by aligning with the global standards.”

“We are delighted to now provide leadership in setting the technology standard for 4G services in India by introducing the cutting edge TD-LTE. We are confident that others will follow in this direction and participate in our pioneering effort of making TD-LTE the de facto 4G standard in India,” he added.

The service will allow superfast access to high definition (HD) video streaming, multiple chatting, instant uploading of photos and much more. Airtel claims that charges for Airtel 4G services are comparable with other leading operators offering broadband services in the country.

Bharti Airtel is one of the founding members of the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) which was launched at the Mobile World Congress 2011. Other key founding members of the global initiative include China Mobile and Softbank Mobile.