Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest telecom operator by revenue, said it is in the process of upgrading doubling the speeds on its 3G network in seven circles using the latest dual-carrier technology.
Dual carrier technology, also known as DC-HSPA, uses two chunks of 5 MHz spectrum unlike regular 3G, which uses only one block of 5 MHz spectrum. No other firm in India is implementing the technology on 3G.
Airtel had acquired additional blocks of 5 MHz spectrum in the recently concluded spectrum auction, while it already had additional blocks in a couple of circles from last year’s auction.
The circles where the new technology is being rolled out are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Assam and North East.
The company’s CEO Gopal Vittal said it does not need to make any big additional investment to roll out the technology.
“Only a software update is needed. We can get speeds similar to 4G on 1800 MHz (band 3),” Vittal said.
In India, mobile broadband is delivered over three main bands — 1800 MHz (4G), 2100 MHz (3G) and 2300 MHz (4G).
Both 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz use blocks of 5 MHz each — whether for 3G or 4G, while the 2300 MHz band uses blocks of 20 or 30 MHz each.
Due to the difference in the quantity of spectrum used, a single block or carrier of 4G gives a speed of around 15 Mbps on the 1800 MHz band, but gives 50 Mbps on the 2300 MHz band.
In comparison, a single carrier of 3G on the 2100 MHz band gives a speed of around 6-7 Mbps in practice.
What Airtel is planning to do is combined the extra carrier that it has acquired — either in the same 2100 MHz band or in the 900 MHz ‘voice’ band — and double the 3G speed using ‘dual carrier’ technology.
Theoretically, DC-HSPA — as the technology is known — supports downloads speeds of 42 Mbps. However, in practice, the download speed will be only around 15 Mbps in decent conditions.
This is comparable to the speed achieved by 4G operators using a single carrier of 5 MHz.
While 4G speeds can also be doubled by using two carriers, most handsets do not have support for dual-carrier 4G, while dual-carrier 3G is widely supported as it is an earlier technology.
In 4G, Airtel will introduce the dual-carrier technology on its 1800 MHz band in ten circles in India. Idea also plans to use dual-carrier technology in key circles like Kerala. They could also use more than two carriers in 4G as they have 3 blocks of spectrum in several circles, but support for the feature is limited to phones with high-end chips like Snapdragon 820.
For Airtel, the technology roll out is likely to be completed in a matter of weeks as software updates can be pushed to the base stations over the air.
Airtel to double 3G speed to 42 Mbps in Karnataka, AP and 5 other circles - RTN.ASIA
Dual carrier technology, also known as DC-HSPA, uses two chunks of 5 MHz spectrum unlike regular 3G, which uses only one block of 5 MHz spectrum. No other firm in India is implementing the technology on 3G.
Airtel had acquired additional blocks of 5 MHz spectrum in the recently concluded spectrum auction, while it already had additional blocks in a couple of circles from last year’s auction.
The circles where the new technology is being rolled out are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Assam and North East.
The company’s CEO Gopal Vittal said it does not need to make any big additional investment to roll out the technology.
“Only a software update is needed. We can get speeds similar to 4G on 1800 MHz (band 3),” Vittal said.
In India, mobile broadband is delivered over three main bands — 1800 MHz (4G), 2100 MHz (3G) and 2300 MHz (4G).
Both 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz use blocks of 5 MHz each — whether for 3G or 4G, while the 2300 MHz band uses blocks of 20 or 30 MHz each.
Due to the difference in the quantity of spectrum used, a single block or carrier of 4G gives a speed of around 15 Mbps on the 1800 MHz band, but gives 50 Mbps on the 2300 MHz band.
In comparison, a single carrier of 3G on the 2100 MHz band gives a speed of around 6-7 Mbps in practice.
What Airtel is planning to do is combined the extra carrier that it has acquired — either in the same 2100 MHz band or in the 900 MHz ‘voice’ band — and double the 3G speed using ‘dual carrier’ technology.
Theoretically, DC-HSPA — as the technology is known — supports downloads speeds of 42 Mbps. However, in practice, the download speed will be only around 15 Mbps in decent conditions.
This is comparable to the speed achieved by 4G operators using a single carrier of 5 MHz.
While 4G speeds can also be doubled by using two carriers, most handsets do not have support for dual-carrier 4G, while dual-carrier 3G is widely supported as it is an earlier technology.
In 4G, Airtel will introduce the dual-carrier technology on its 1800 MHz band in ten circles in India. Idea also plans to use dual-carrier technology in key circles like Kerala. They could also use more than two carriers in 4G as they have 3 blocks of spectrum in several circles, but support for the feature is limited to phones with high-end chips like Snapdragon 820.
For Airtel, the technology roll out is likely to be completed in a matter of weeks as software updates can be pushed to the base stations over the air.
Airtel to double 3G speed to 42 Mbps in Karnataka, AP and 5 other circles - RTN.ASIA
