Ericsson to Partner Bharti Airtel on 4G LTE Network

"Airtel has selected Ericsson to be its partner in offering LTE (Long-Term Evolution, also marketed as 4G LTE) in India," Chris Houghton, head of Ericsson Region India, said in New Delhi at a company-organised event to launch the product solution.

LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals.

Bharti Airtel and Aircel have launched 4G services in a few cities on the 2300MHz band (TDD-LTE standard), while Reliance Jio Infocomm, the only company with a pan-India license, has not yet launched its services.

The Aditya Birla Group's Idea Cellular has inked a solutions data charging deal for Ericsson's Evolved IP Network (EIN) that delivers subscriber broadband services, such as triple-play, 2G, 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi over a unified IP transport.

Airtel, Jio, Vodafone India and Idea were among the companies that, in auctions held in February, won spectrum in the 1800MHz band, which can also be used for 4G.