Bharti Airtel re-farms mid-band spectrum for 5G

Airtel said its 5G service is now available across all 28 states and 8 union territories in India

Indian telco Bharti Airtel confirmed that it has started re-farming its existing mid-band spectrum with the main aim of accommodating the growing traffic demand on its 5G network, Indian press reported.

To accommodate the growing number of customers migrating to its 5G network, Airtel said it is in the process of re-farming its mid-band spectrum to expand 5G services on its 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz and 2.3 GHz bands across India.

“As more customers pivot to our 5G services, we have re-farmed our mid band spectrum which was being used for 4G services. With this, we are also ready to launch 5G SA technology. This will mean that the Airtel network will be the first network in India to run on both Standalone and Non-Standalone modes allowing us to deliver the best experience in the market,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO at Bharti Airtel.

Published reports also highlighted that Airtel has conducted a pilot combining both 5G SA and NSA modes in Rewari, Chennai and Bhubaneswar, adding that the results have been promising. This capability on the 5G network will enable Airtel to introduce new innovative applications, services and solutions through open APIs, differentiated connectivity and service-based architecture, the report added.

Airtel’s 5G service is now available across all 28 states and 8 union territories in India.

Nokia recently said it has successfully completed its first 5G Non-Standalone cloud RAN trial with Bharti Airtel.

The trial took place in an over-the-air environment utilizing 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G and 2.1 GHz for 4G.

Nokia noted that data calls were successfully performed with commercial user devices over Airtel’s commercial network achieving a throughput of over 1.2 Gbps. The trial used Nokia’s RAN Software for virtualized Distributed Unit (vDU) and virtualized Centralized Unit (vCU) running on x86 Hardware with a CaaS layer.

The trial also used Nokia’s Layer 1 acceleration, which the vendor said enables enhanced power efficiency and supports Nokia’s “anyRAN” benefits of using common RAN software with the purpose-built part of the network.

Airtel is currently using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 5G services. The Indian operator had secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a previous auction carried out by the Indian government in July 2022. Last month, the telco secured additional spectrum to expand its 5G offering.