Airtel said it will deploy the advanced Massive MIMO Pre-5G technology across IPL match venues during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 season – targeting to enhance its 4G user base.
Reliance Jio is the largest 4G operator in India with more than 160 million subscribers across the country. Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India put together have only 70 million plus 4G subscribers in India.
The investment in Massive MIMO will enable Airtel’s 4G customers to experience superfast data speeds on Airtel’s 4G network despite the very large number of concurrent users on the network sites at the venue.
Airtel, India’s fastest mobile network, will deploy the Massive MIMO solution in IPL match venues in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mohali, Indore, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Chennai. The company did not reveal its investment in Massive MIMO.
The first venue to go LIVE with Airtel’s Massive MIMO deployment will be the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai where the first match of the IPL will be played on April 7, 2018.
“As part of our endeavour to offer a seamless high speed 4G experience to our customers, we are deploying this advanced Pre-5G solution to enable a high speed and high capacity in-stadia network experience at IPL match venues,” Shyam Mardikar, CTO – Mobile, Bharti Airtel, said.
Airtel already announced that its data users can also access all LIVE matches IPL 2018 for free via Hotstar by downloading the new version of the Airtel TV app. The new version of the mobile app comes with a dedicated cricket section and loads of interactive games and content.
