Telecom Lead India: Chinese telecom equipment major Huawei and leading Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel have announced the launch of a TD LTE smartphone in India.
Airtel customers can now use the ultra-fast 4G smartphone, the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE. This is the first 4G LTE smartphone in the country.
Airtel launched 4G TD-LTE services in Kolkata in April 2012 and Bangalore in May 2012.
Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor said the company has LTE ARPU of 20 dollars.
“LTE delivers 20 Mbps of upload speed and 40 Mbps download speed. The service helps us in ramping up customer base. We will be rolling out LTE in a few more circles,” Kapoor said.
“We took the lead in introducing India’s first 4G service in Kolkata and continue to commit towards driving the country’s broadband agenda. As applicable to any new technology across the world, the long term adoption of 4G will rely on a variety of factors, specifically the device ecosystem readiness. The availability of 4G voice and data compatible devices will play a defining role in massifying 4G, and driving its adoption,” Kapoor added.
Bharti Airtel has achieved 3,180 TD-LTE subscribers through its 4G network in Kolkata and Bangalore, Telecom Lead reported recently.
Airtel has BWA licenses in four circles – Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra – and 3G licenses in 13 circles in India. Its recent deal to buy BWA license from Qualcomm will enable Airtel to secure a nation-wide broadband leadership through a combination of 4G and 3G, with its own networks in 18 circles.
Huawei announced the launch of its ultra-fast 4G smartphone — Huawei Ascend P1 LTE — at Innovation Qualcomm India 2012 summit in New Delhi today. During the launch Huawei India CEO Cal Li Qun and Qualcomm officials were present.
“LTE is the future of mobile communications, and faster data access experience will become a key area of differentiation for consumers when choosing their mobile devices,” said Cai Liqun, CEO of Huawei India. “Huawei is committed to LTE innovation throughout the entire communications value chain from the device to the network to the cloud. The availability of the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE is just one more way in which we are putting great technology into the hands of more people globally and now in India.”
Huawei Ascend P1 LTE runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Powered by by QTI’s Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, Huawei Ascend P1 LTE smartphone handles high speed data on the LTE network and voice calls on the underlying 3G network using Circuit Switched Voice Fall Back (CSFB voice) technology.
