Airtel to deploy 7000 new mobile broadband sites, Massive MIMO pre-5G technology and 10MHz of fresh 4G spectrum in Mumbai

Airtel today announced that it is planning a massive network deployment plans for Mumbai as part of its network transformation initiative - Project Leap. During the FY 18-19, Airtel plans to roll out 7000 new mobile sites including the large-scale deployment of pre-5G Massive MIMO technology across Mumbai to significantly boost network capacity for high-speed data and voice services. This roll-out would translate to the addition to the one new mobile site to Airtel’s future-ready network in Mumbai every hour throughout the year. It is also planning on integrating an additional a spectrum carrier of 10 MHz in the 2300 MHz band to further strengthen its 4G footprint. Airtel also mentioned that the pre-5G Massive MIMO technology will be deployed across all major business hubs and residential locations in the city. The MIMO expands network capacities by 5-7 times on the same spectrum and delivers super fast data speeds despite a large number of concurrent users at the same location. Back in April, Airtel had deployed Massive MIMO pre-5G solution across IPL match venues offering up to 3x faster 4G speeds. The planned roll-out will augment the current network in Mumbai by 30%, taking the total number of sites in the city to 27,000. The company ...