Bharti Airtel announced it has commenced the implementation of its massive network transformation program “Project Leap” in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana Circle.
Airtel is investing Rs. 60,000 crore across the country towards this strategic project in the next 3 years.
Project Leap aims to improve network quality and deliver the best customer experience, the company said.
“We see Project Leap as a transformation program that will significantly improve the quality of both voice and data service across the length and breadth of Andhra Pradesh &Telangana Circle,” said Venkatesh Vijayraghavan, chief executive officer, Andhra Pradesh &Telangana, Bharti Airtel.
The focus in this region will be towards upgrading and modernizing its network, expanding the mobile broadband network to rural areas and laying optical fibre both locally and internationally.
Over the years Airtel has also invested Rs. 1, 60,000 crores in its active and passive network, spectrum, fiber, submarine cables and systems till date.
The comprehensive ten point program under “Project Leap” will enable Airtel to take a decisive lead in delivering a differentiated customer experience, a statement from the company said. It will focus on the following:
Deploying over 70,000 base stations in FY 15-16 making it the largest deployment in a single year since its inception.
By March 2016 over 60 percent 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.
Expanding 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.
Deploying a range of solutions including small cells, carrier aggregation solutions, WiFi and the use of multiple technologies across different spectrum bands. 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.
Airtel 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.
The telco also plans to 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.
Modernizing 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 plans to deploy Fiber to the home and offer upto 100 Mbps speeds.
Airtel will use its extensive domestic infrastructure to deploy a range of solutions that include fiber to the building as well as Internet Wireless Access Network (IWAN). As part of this program, Airtel plans to provide seamless connectivity to the millions of small and medium enterprises.
Investing in a broad range of tools that includes SON (Self Optimising Networks for automatic network optimization), Geo spatial network tools for targeted network planning, capacity enhancements, CEM (Customer experience management) as well as software defined networks that will dramatically improve customer experience.
Further, the company 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. As a result of these initiatives Airtel will reduce its carbon footprint by upto 70 percent on a per unit basis in the next 3 years.
Airtel will also launch an information portal for Project Leap that will enable customers to understand and monitor the progress of ‘Leap’ in their locality on a near real time basis.
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