The telco aims to deploy 160,000 base stations in three years
Indian telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel plans to invest 600 billion rupees ($9 billion) over the next three years to expand its mobile and fixed network infrastructure across the country.
The telco said the investment is part of its Project Leap initiative, which is set to include the deployment of more than 70,000 base stations during the current fiscal year ending March 2016. The telco said the investment also includes $2.2 billion in capital expenditures for the current fiscal year.
With Project Leap, Bharti Airtel said it expects to deploy more than 160,000 base stations over the next three years. By March 2016, the telco is looking to provide mobile broadband coverage to all towns in India and 250,000 villages. Bharti also expects to provide mobile broadband services in 500,000 villages within the next three years
The operator plans to invest in indoor solutions, including small cells and Wi-Fi hot spots to improve indoor network coverage in certain areas. The planned investment also includes the deployment of 550,000 kilometers of fiber optic backbone to extend the company’s domestic and international reach, and the deployment of fiber-to-the-home in certain areas across India.
Bharti Airtel said it has already invested 1.6 trillion rupees in its local operations to date, including the expansion of network infrastructure and the acquisition of spectrum.
The operator served 235.2 million mobile phone subscribers in India at the end of the fiscal second quarter of 2015. Bharti Airtel initially launched India’s first LTE network in Kolkata in April 2012, through spectrum in the 2300 MHz band. The telco has operations in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and 17 countries in Africa.
NTT DoCoMo, Nokia Networks carry out 5G trial in Tokyo
In other APAC news, Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo announced it had successfully carried out a “5G” trial in cooperation with Nokia Networks. The trial was carried out at the Roppongi Hills compex in Tokyo.
The Japanese firm said it achieved data transmission in excess of 2 gigabits per second using millimeter-wavelength signals in the 70 GHz band.
NTT DoCoMo has been collaborating with a number of vendors in trials and development of 5G mobile communication technologies since May 2014. The telco said its looking to launch a 5G mobile communications system by 2020.
