Ericsson Bags 4G Network Deal From Bharti Airtel

New Delhi: Swedish telecom gear firm Ericsson on Thursday said it has signed a 4G network deal with Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator.

The company, however, refused to share more information on the deal including the financial and circle details.

"Airtel has selected Ericsson for FDD-LTE network," Ericsson India head Chris Houghton told reporters in Delhi. He refused to comment when asked which circle the deal has been signed for.

Bharti Airtel won 1,800 MHz spectrum in 15 circles including metros Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The Sunil Bharti Mittal-promoted firm plans to launch pan-India 4G network using 1,800 MHz.

Airtel had also won broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum in 2,300 MHz frequency band in four telecom services areas of Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka in 2010.

It later acquired Qualcomm, which had 4G spectrum in New Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala.

The company already offers 4G services using TDD LTE technology on 2,300 Mhz band in Ludhiana, Mohali, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh and Panchkula.

4G mobile Internet technology provides download speeds of around 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) on the move and it can go up to 1 Gigabits per second (Gbps) at a fixed location.