In Indias largest mobile company by revenues and customers, Bharti Airtel, has chosen China's ZTE to buy fourth generation networks (4G). The collaboration between Airtel and ZTE will bring out 4G services in Kolkata first of all, and later on Airtel may extend contract to the other regions and circles where it holds wireless broadband airwaves.
The Chinese company, ZTE, already has the experience of rolling out 4G networks in Scandinavia and Hungary for Sweden's Hi3G and Telenor of Norway. But the company does not have a major footprint in India. The Airtel deal is for ZTE, the first mega wireless broadband network equipment deal in India using the LTE-TDD (Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex) technology.
Bharti Airtel had paid 3314.36 crore for wireless broadband airwaves (BWA) in four regions - Maharashtra, Kolkata, Karnataka and Punjab during the auctions last year. The four-circle 4G network deal from Airtel is being valued at upwards of $300 million, so the stakes are quite high in this case. If ZTE is successful in implemnting the 4G network rollout in Kolkata, it may be the lead contender for supplying LTE gear for the remaining three circles as well.
According to sources, Sunil Mittal, the chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises had recently met ZTE chairman Hou Weigui to formalise the Chinese equipment vendor's role in implementing the Bharti BWA rollout. Airtel is also in talks with a number of 4G dongle and handset makers to ring in a broader range of end-user devices in the run-up to launching wireless broadband services by early-2012.
One of the major impediments in the rollout of the 4G networks is also the absence of a strong device eco-system. This is, however, expected to change in the coming months, as many major device makers are set to launch their 4G systems.
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