India’s leading mobile operator Aircel, a joint venture between Maxis and India’s Apollo Hospitals who has pan India 2G coverage has geared up to roll out 4th generation mobile services in India by the end of 2012, as reported by LightReading India.
In 2010 Aircel had bagged 5MHz spectrum on 2100 MHz band in 13 circles for 3G services and consecutively bagged 20MHz spectrum on 2300MHz frequency band in 8 circles for broadband wireless access services roll out.
It is known that Aircel will deploy Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex (LTE-TDD) technology to build their 4G network just like Bharti Airtel did. It has been known that Aircel is now evaluating vendors’ pricing and still not in a position to select a equipment vendor.
Last year August, Aircel conducted field trial of the world’s first GSM/UMTS/LTE-TDD mobile services partnering Huawei using devices powered by Qualcomm MDM9600 multimode chipset.
Compared to LTE-FDD which is widely deployed across Europe and United States, LTE-TDD ecosystem is not so mature. Even smartphones supporting LTE-TDD is on their way to be commercially available. Chipset makers are working on that; Altair introduced Hornet LTE-TD chipset and ST-Ericsson hopes that by December 2012 they can deliver smartphone chipsets supporting LTE-TDD networks. It is expected to see a boom in LTE-TDD ecosystem when China and India’s pan India 4G spectrum holder Reliance Industries’ Infotel Broadband will roll out LTE-TDD networks over 2.3GHz band.
In 2010 Aircel had bagged 5MHz spectrum on 2100 MHz band in 13 circles for 3G services and consecutively bagged 20MHz spectrum on 2300MHz frequency band in 8 circles for broadband wireless access services roll out.
It is known that Aircel will deploy Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex (LTE-TDD) technology to build their 4G network just like Bharti Airtel did. It has been known that Aircel is now evaluating vendors’ pricing and still not in a position to select a equipment vendor.
Last year August, Aircel conducted field trial of the world’s first GSM/UMTS/LTE-TDD mobile services partnering Huawei using devices powered by Qualcomm MDM9600 multimode chipset.
Compared to LTE-FDD which is widely deployed across Europe and United States, LTE-TDD ecosystem is not so mature. Even smartphones supporting LTE-TDD is on their way to be commercially available. Chipset makers are working on that; Altair introduced Hornet LTE-TD chipset and ST-Ericsson hopes that by December 2012 they can deliver smartphone chipsets supporting LTE-TDD networks. It is expected to see a boom in LTE-TDD ecosystem when China and India’s pan India 4G spectrum holder Reliance Industries’ Infotel Broadband will roll out LTE-TDD networks over 2.3GHz band.