Bharti Airtel today announced it will make significant investments to expand its mobile operations and network footprint across Kerala.
Airtel has a subscriber base of 4.916 million in Kerala. Airtel’s main rivals in Kerala include Idea Cellular with 12.229 million, BSNL with 10.521 million, Vodafone with 7.93 million, and Reliance Jio with 5.502 million subscribers, according to TRAI statistics on wireless customer base for March 2018.
Airtel plans to set up 5,000 new mobile sites across Kerala in fiscal 2018-19 to add network capacity and offer high speed data services in rural areas. This effectively translates to 1 new Airtel mobile site going LIVE every two hours across the state.
The number of Airtel’s mobile sites across Kerala will go up by 30 percent to 22,000. Airtel also plans to rollout 500 kms of fresh optic fiber across the state to take its fiber footprint to 6,000 kms.
“Kerala is an important market for us and we are committed to expanding our high speed data networks to every corner of the state,” Manoj Murali, CEO – Tamil Nadu & Kerala, Airtel, said.
Airtel was the first mobile operator to launch 4G services in Kerala. Airtel launched India’s first 4G advanced in Kochi combining capacities of TD LTE (2300 MHz spectrum band) and FD LTE (1800 MHz spectrum band).
