Airtel's LTE900 Running in Bengaluru: Excellent Indoor Speed

Last month I was in Bangalore, and I found that for indoor coverage Airtel has deployed 900MHz band. LTE900 is running commercial by Airtel in Bangalore. Read more about Airtel's LTE900.

Like in Kolkata, Airtel is using 5MHz of 900MHz band (band 8) for FDD LTE along with LTE-TD 2300MHz and LTE-FDD 1800MHz.

I did not made a speedtest with Airtel LTE900 as I was bit low on data and in hurry. However as per my experience it is quite good. More than 3Mbps was the download speed although my usage.

Airtel Testing LTE 900 (Band 8) in Kolkata

Airtel has launched LTE900 in Mumbai and Punjab circle officially, and another some circles will see Airtel's LTE900 go live in coming days. Airtel is refarming spectrum on 900MHz which is being used for 2G in most circles and 3G in some circles. This is second refarming on 900MHz by Airtel. 

Airtel's LTE900 will be an answer to Jio's LTE850, both can provide better indoor coverage and extended LTE coverage. It should be noted that Jio which is a pure play LTE operator has 98.8% of LTE coverage while Airtel stands second with 90.0%, as informed by Ookla.

Today I have checked Airtel's signals, and even inside the house Airtel's LTE is detected as LTE 3CA. Though I could not find or latch into Airtel's LTE900 my guess is the third carrier of Airtel LTE is on 900MHz, apart from 2300MHz and 1800MHz. 

Spectrum Refarming for LTE Extended to 900 MHz, to be to 2100MHz

Airtel, presently India's 2nd largest mobile operator has refarmed spectrum on 900MHz (band 8) band in Mumbai to roll out LTE900 as announced on February 15th. The LTE network of Airtel in Mumbai will get further boost as the company will install 7000 new BTS as well as 400km of fiber optic line across the metro circle. With carrier aggregation of 3CA and pre-5G massive MIMO Airtel's LTE network is capable of delivering world class services. Under Project Leap, Airtel is transforming the LTE network with massive MIMO and CA since 2018. 

Currently Airtel is working with its network partners Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE to bring LTE900 to another 9 circles - Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, North-East, Assam and Rajasthan in phased manner. It should be noted that Airtel already refarmed spectrum on 1800MHz usually used for 2G, for LTE deployment. 

That will bring Airtel's LTE network over 2300MHz, 1800MHz and 900MHz at par with Jio's LTE network. Later's LTE signal flies over 2300MHz, 1800MHz and 850MHz. Vodafone Idea will also follow the suit, as post merger they have ample of 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz spectrum. However Vodafone Idea's main LTE signals are on 1800MHz and 2300/2500MHz.