Bharti Airtel today announced the launch of its network transformation program – Project Leap aimed at improving network quality. It will invest Rs. 60,000 crores in the next 3 years. It has invested Rs. 1, 60,000 crores in its active and passive network, spectrum, fiber, submarine cables and systems till date, said the company.
Airtel said that it will deploy over 70,000 base stations in FY 15-16. “By March 2016 over 60% of Airtel’s network will be mobile broadband enabled. In three years, Airtel will deploy over 160,000 base stations, effectively doubling its presence from what it has today on the ground,” said the company.
- It will also expand its mobile broadband coverage to all towns and over 250,000 villages by March 2016. In three years Airtel plans to offer mobile broadband to over 500,000 villages in the country.
- It will modernize its over 3 million strong home broadband network by upgrading its Copper assets through new age Vectoring Technology. This technology will enable Airtel to offer 50 Mbps speeds from its current 16 Mbps by 2016. In addition Airtel said that it plans to deploy Fiber to the home and offer upto 100 Mbps speeds
- It will deploy a range of solutions including small cells, carrier aggregation solutions, wi-fi and the use of multiple technologies across different spectrum bands. This will enable the company to provide state of the art coverage on both voice and data services inside buildings across cities.
- Over a period of three years, Airtel plans to deploy over 1, 00,000 solutions through a combination of wi-fi hotspots, small cells and indoor solutions. It will cumulatively deploy more than 550,000 Kms of domestic & international fiber in order to drive down latency, improve customer experience and serve the growing demand of data services for years to come.
- It will swap its legacy networks and base stations over a three year period and replace them with smaller, more compact and efficient technologies that will significantly improve customer experience. All these modern base stations will use a single radio access network to manage multiple spectrum bands.
- Airtel will make substantial investments in green technologies over the next three years. It will deploy modern and lesser power consuming radio technologies that include compact base stations and small cells. It will also leverage multiple band antennas and deploy new battery technologies that will significantly lower energy consumption and reduce diesel dependency.
Commenting on the launch, Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) said:
At Airtel, customers are at the heart of everything we do and delivering a world-class experience for them has always been our topmost priority. Our large customer base covers rural, urban, homes and enterprises and we are obsessed about delivering an exceptional experience for each one of them so as to win them for life. Today we are excited to launch “Project Leap” which will catapult the Airtel network to be a world class network in the coming three years. We are confident that this new initiative will deliver a truly differentiated customer experience and reinforce our commitment to build a future ready network”.The comprehensive ten point program under “Project Leap” will enable Airtel to take a decisive lead in delivering a differentiated customer experience.
We are confident that “Project Leap” will help Airtel build a smart and dynamic network that will significantly improve the quality of both voice and data services across the length and breadth of the country. More importantly we are excited to share the “Project Leap” plan with each of our customers in their specific locality. This we believe will help us serve our customers with transparency and clarity.