Airtel deploys Massive MIMO at Bengaluru and Kolkata

India’s largest telecommunications service provider, Bharti Airtel today announced the deployment of India’s first Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology which is a key enabler for 5G networks at Bengaluru and Kolkata.

Airtel also plans to deploy Masssive MIMO in other parts of the country soon.

Deployed as part of Airtel’s ongoing network transformation program, Project Leap, the Massive MIMO technology will expand existing network capacity by five to seven times using the existing spectrum, thereby improving spectral efficiency. Customers will now be able to experience two to three times superfast speeds on the existing 4G network.

Massive MIMO is a key enabler and foundation for technology revolutions to come. It is a pre-5G technology that will make the network future ready for meeting the data demand coming from digital revolution and data explosion in India.

Customers can enjoy these faster data speeds on their existing 4G mobile devices without any upgrades or plan change. Massive MIMO deployment uses green technology and thus helps reduce carbon footprint.

Abhay Savargaonkar, Director – Networks, Bharti Airtel said, “India is fast striding towards exponential and unprecedented data growth. Our latest deployment of Massive MIMO, will help us serve this demand and would also give an impetus to build a future ready network. The deployment gives us a strategic advantage to provide faster speeds and enhanced user experience for our customers, thereby translating into improved spectrum efficiency.”

Massive MIMO creates 3D beams both on horizontal and vertical planes towards users located within its coverage footprint. This helps in improving coverage and reducing interference across users in different beams, thereby improving signal quality (SINR) by 2-3 dB. Serving multiple users by re-using same set of resource blocks (MU-MIMO) with improved signal quality helps in improving user experience, cell capacity and spectrum efficiency.

 

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