Bharti Airtel first to deploy LTE in India, launching in Kolkata this month
It's beginning on a very limited basis, but Bharti Airtel is achieving a rather significant milestone in India: it's set to become the very first operator to deploy LTE service within the country. Having won spectrum for four markets nearly two years ago, the company will debut its ZTE-built 2300MHz next-gen network in Kolkata (Calcutta). There's no word on when the coverage will expand to the other three circles -- the operator's announced that Nokia Siemens will be heading up the effort in Maharashtra later this year, followed by Punjab and Karnataka -- but we imagine the initial deployment will be a good test to make sure Bharti's network is up to the task first.
[Thanks, Shweta]
