Airtel has acquired 49% stake in Qualcomm India unit and announce a partnership that allows Airtel to rollout 4G in more circles. Bharti has made $165 million investment in Qualcomm India unit, Qualcomm has 4G licenses for important circles in India including Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala.
The announced partnership will allow Bharti Airtel to rollout 4G data services in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. According to the agreement once commercial operations launched, Bharti would assume complete ownership for the BWA entities by the end of 2014.
Bharti earlier this year rolled out 4G in Kolkata and Bangalore. Airtel has licenses for 4G in other circles including Kolkata, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab. Bharti had 13 licenses for 3G networks and with the addition of 4G licenses it will have a huge coverage of high speed mobile broadband services across the country.
Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to partner with Qualcomm, who shares our commitment to the Government’s agenda of broadband for all. This partnership will combine the strength of Bharti’s national telecom footprint and Qualcomm’s technological leadership in the LTE TDD space. With a broadband ready network across India, Bharti is well positioned to lead the next phase of Indian’s telecom revolution.”
Qualcomm will provide technical assistance to Bharti with network architecture and optimization, including infrastructure and device testing. And will continue to support and develop the underlying technology and the LTE TDD ecosystem.
