Airtel to take on Jio via cable partnerships; begins massive FTTH expansion

 

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel is readying for a massive expansion in its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband service via local cable operators, Business Standard reported. The move is aimed at taking on Reliance Jio, which offers its FTTH broadband service in 2,000 cities.

The Sunil Mittal-led telco plans to offer the service in over 1,000 cities across the country, in the next 12-18 months.

The publication reported that Airtel is targetting over 40 million of the 240 million households in the country.

"It (partnership) is working well for home broadband subscribers because it is again saving resources. The cable operator has already put a cable or fiber cable inside the home of his customer which is now probably taking a cable TV which has backhaul on fiber," Randeep Sekhon, Airtel CTO recently told ETTelecom.

"We have launched in many towns using this combination. It is fantastic because it is generating local entrepreneurship. Sometimes these cable operators are very young entrepreneurs who have put an investment and are managing their customers. This gives them a chance to increase their business and also be our partner," Sekhon added.

Sekhon said that the partnership model is helping Airtel expand its fiber network and launch services quickly.

Airtel is now live in 14 such cities through this partnership model, the company revealed recently.

Plans to roll-out 8000 new sites and 4200 KMs of optic fiber in FY 18-19
Airtel – India’s fastest mobile network – now covers more than 27,000 towns and villages in the region with 19,500 mobile broadband sites
One new site will get added every hour to Airtel’s future-ready network in Maharashtra & Goa under this aggressive roll-out plan

- The network roll-out of FY 18-19 would take the total number of sites to more than 38,000 and extend the fiber backbone to 21,600 KMs
- Expansion plan of FY 18-19 follows a fruitful FY 17-18 which saw 6800 new sites and 2600 KMs of fiber getting added to Airtel’s future-ready network

Pune, 8th May 2018. Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest telecommunications service provider, today announced it massive network roll-out plans for FY 2018-19 to further expand its high speed mobile data footprint in Maharashtra & Goa.

As a part of its network expansion program – Project LEAP, Airtel announced its plans to add more than 8000 new sites in FY 2018-19, along with an addition of more than 4200 KMs of optic fiber, in Maharashtra & Goa. While stepping up the data capacities and taking services deeper into rural and unconnected areas, the massive roll-out would mean addition of 1 new site per hour to Airtel’s future-ready network in the states of Maharashtra & Goa (excl Mumbai).

The expansion plan for FY 2018-19 follows a fruitful FY 2017-18 which saw more than 7000 new sites being deployed and more than 2600 KMs of optic fiber being rolled out in Maharashtra & Goa, extending its mobile broadband footprint to 27000 towns and villages.

Rohit Marwha, Chief Executive Officer – Maharashtra & Goa, Bharti Airtel Ltd, adds, “We are committed to offer our customers in Maharashtra & Goa a seamless experience on the best smartphone network. We will continue to invest aggressively in the region and expand our network capabilities with over 38,000 sites by the end of this financial year. With our enhanced speeds, reach and coverage, we also aim to contribute towards the Government’s vision of Digital India.”

With this planned roll-out, number of Airtel’s mobile sites in Maharashtra & Goa would go up by 25% to 38,000, further enhancing the speeds and voice qualities. The addition of fresh optic fiber would extend its fiber backbone to 21,600 KMs, supporting the growth of high speed data services in the region.

Network highlights of Airtel Maharashtra & Goa:

• - 4G services on 2300 MHz launched in Apr 2012
• - 4G services on 1800 MHz added in Feb 2017
• - VoLTE services launched in Oct 2017
• - Fiber backbone – 17400 KMs
• - Total number of sites at the end of FY 17-18 – 31,000
• - Towns and villages covered by Airtel network– 40,000

About Bharti Airtel Limited
Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 16 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G, 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 413 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2018. To know more please visit, www.airtel.in