Airtel says ready for 5G; deploys additional spectrum in Karnataka, TN

Bharti Airtel on Monday said its network is fully ready for 5G and also announced deployment of additional spectrum in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to boost network quality.

The company has deployed 11.2 Megahertz (Mhz) additional spectrum in Karnataka and 5 Mhz in Tamil Nadu, both in 1800 Mhz band, popularly known as 2G spectrum.

"Airtel had acquired the 11.2 Mhz spectrum for Karnataka during the recent auctions conducted by the Government of India. With this fresh spectrum, Airtel has the largest spectrum bank of 68.8 Mhz in Karnataka.

"With its diverse spectrum holdings across 2300, 2100, 1800, 900 bands, the company is well positioned to serve the growing demand for high speed data services and its network is fully ready for 5G," the company said in a statement.

Airtel claims to have over 3.03 crore customers in Karnataka and its network covers 97.5 per cent population of the state.

"Airtel now has the largest spectrum bank in Karnataka and our future ready network is well positioned to meet the surging demand for high speed data," Bharti Airtel CEO-Karnataka Sharan Shetty said.

It had also acquired large blocks of 1800 and 900 Mhz spectrum for Tamil Nadu during the recent auctions.

"With this fresh spectrum, Airtel has the largest spectrum bank of 65 Mhz in Tamil Nadu. With its diverse spectrum holdings across 2300 MHz (TD LTE), 2100 MHz (FD LTE) 1800 MHz (FD LTE), and 900 MHz (LTE 900), the company is well positioned to serve the growing demand for high speed data services and its network is fully ready for 5G," the company said.

Airtel claims to have over 2.7 crore customers in Tamil Nadu and its network covers 98.54 per cent population of the state.

"The additional blocks of 1800 band spectrum and new technology upgrades will massively enhance our network capacity to serve the growing data requirement of customers," Bharti Airtel CEO-Tamil Nadu Amit Tripathi said.