Bharti Airtel has awarded a 4G contract worth $200 million to Finland-based Nokia Networks. Under the contract, Nokia Networks will be responsible for building the telecom operator?s 4G network in the 1800 MHz band in six circles. The circles covered under the deal are Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Punjab and Kerala service areas.
At present, majority of the 4G networks in the country are deployed on the 2300 MHz band and use time duplex division- long term evolution (TDD-LTE) technology. However, Airtel’s 4G network in the 1800 MHz band will use the Frequency Division Duplex-LTE technology.
Nokia Networks already manages Airtel’s TDD-LTE network in the Maharashtra circle and will also deploy its TDD-LTE network in Mumbai and Kerala circles.
