Airtel to roll out 10,000 mobile sites in West Bengal, plans to start Pre-5G Massive MIMO technology

With an aim to expand its network footprint in West Bengal, Bharti Airtel plans to roll out 10,000 new mobile sites across the State.

Airtel service provider will also start deploying pre-5G massive MIMO technology in Kolkata to offer a high-speed data experience to customers.

The planned roll-out will increase the number of mobile sites in the state of West Bengal by 35 percent, taking the total number of sites to 38000.

Airtel's optic fiber footprint in the state will reach 17000 kms with the addition of 2000 km of fresh fiber rollout, the telco informed.

"As part of our endeavor to build a future-ready network to deliver a best-in-class experience to our customers, we are stepping up our network investments across West Bengal," Sameer Anjaria, Chief Executive Officer - West Bengal & Odisha, Bharti Airtel Ltd, said.

He said: "Airtel has pioneered the rollout of Massive MIMO in India and we will now undertake wide-scale deployments of the cutting-edge technology in key business and residential hubs across Kolkata. This will truly add to the smartphone experience for Airtel customers."

According to the telco, Massive MIMO technology will be deployed at major business hubs and residential locations in the city, will expand network capacity by 5-7 times over the same spectrum and delivers super fast data speeds despite a large number of concurrent users at the same location.

Airtel had recently deployed the solution at Eden Gardens during the IPL 2018 and received extremely positive customer feedback.

Here are some network highlights of Airtel in West Bengal:

· 7,200+ sites rolled out in FY17-18

· 1,100 km Optical fiber laid out in FY17-18

· Airtel VoLTE services launched in Kolkata, December 2017

· The telco has now reached 51,000 towns and villages across Bengal