After South India, Bharti Airtel Deploys New Spectrum in the North

Within the span of 4 days, Bharti Airtel has deployed a total 45 MHz spectrum in Punjab and Haryana. This comes right after the telco was busy deploying new spectrum it acquired in March in the South.

New Bharti Airtel Spectrum for Punjab and Haryana

First, the telco set up 25 MHz spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.3 GHz bands in Punjab on 31st May. The new deployment meant that the telco had the largest spectrum holding in the state. The Sunil Mittal-led telco now has 65 MHz of usable spectrum deployed in Punjab. The telco also has over 11.53 Million users in the state and its network covers 99.89% population of the state.

In Haryana, the telco announced the deployment today. Airtel deployed 20 MHz more spectrum in Haryana across only one spectrum bands. The second largest telco deployed new spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band. With the move, Bharti Airtel now has 71.2 MHz deployed spectrum in the state. The telco also mentioned in the press release that it has over 5.38 Million customers in Haryana and its network covers 97.57% population of the state.

In both the states, deploying additional spectrum is sure to boost Airtel's connectivity and network quality. The telco also became the service provider with the largest spectrum holdings in both the states.

There are some commons to how Airtel's spectrum is divided in the states as well. Across both the neighbors, the telco has the most spectrum in the 2.3 GHz spectrum - 40 MHz each. Incidentally, this band is a high-capacity band and will allow the telco to shore up its network capacity across the region.

As an afterthought of sorts, Bharti Airtel mentioned that they also have deployed tools such as pre-5G Massive MIMO, 4G Advanced and Carrier Aggregation. Because as per the telco, this will "step up high speed network capacity and coverage".

Bharti Airtel has been on this spectrum-deployment exercise across the country. In May, Airtel deployed additional spectrum in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. However, these weren't much of an upgrade as the present ones.

The telco is looking more and more likely to be the first telco, alongside Reliance Jio, to deploy a 5G network in the country. Bharti Airtel looks more and more ready to do so, and the flurry of network upgrades in key markets reflects that.