Airtel announces deployment of pre-5G Massive MIMO technology

India's largest telecommunications service provider Airtel has announced the deployment of India's first state-of-the-art Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology, which is a key base technology for 5G networks in the future. The company will start  the rollout with Bangalore and Kolkata, and will expand to other parts of the country soon.

The deployment of the Massive MIMO technology is part of Airtel's ongoing network transformation program - Project Leap. It will expand the existing network capacity by five to seven time using existing spectrum, thereby improving spectral efficiency. This will enable users to experience  two to three times  super-fast data speeds on existing 4G network on their existing 4G mobile devices without any upgrades or plan change. 

With the technology, Airtel also aims to provide seamless data speeds indoors, in crowded places and high-rise building. This will allow multiple users and multiple devices to work simultaneously without facing any congestion or experience issues especially at hotspot locations. 

Massive MIMO creates 3D beams in both horizontal and vertical planes towards users located within its coverage range. This helps in improving coverage and reducing interference, across users in different beams thereby improving signal quality for faster speeds. It also involves serving multiple users by re-using the same set of blocks (MU-MIMO) with improved signal quality to improve user experience, cell capacity and spectrum efficiency.

Airtel says Massive MIMO deployment uses green technology and thus helps reduce carbon footprint. It is foundation for future technology revolutions, that will make the network future ready to meet the data demand coming from digital revolution and data explosion in India.

Source: Airtel