Airtel 4G now covers 427 towns and 85,336 villages across Bihar and Jharkhand

• As part of Project Leap, Airtel has committed significant investments to expand its network across the two states to serve the fast growing demand for high speed data

Patna / Ranchi, Feb 26, 2019: Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s leading telecommunications services provider, today said that its 4G network now covers 427 towns and 85,336 villages across Bihar and Jharkhand, empowering customers with best-in-class high speed mobile broadband services.

Airtel, which is the #1 operator in Bihar and Jharkhand with over 35.2 million customers, recently announced a massive network expansion drive to further scale up its high speed data services across the region. Airtel has been rated as fastest* mobile network in 27 states across India

In addition, as part of its acquisition of Telenor’s India operations, Airtel has added 7.2 MHz of spectrum in 1800 MHz band to its portfolio in Bihar and Jharkhand. This will further boost 4G network capacity in the state, complement the rollout of new sites and fiber and enhance customer experience in the form of even better indoor and outdoor coverage.

Sanjiv Mishra, CEO, Bihar and Jharkhand, Bharti Airtel said, “To bring more and more customers onto the digital highway, we are committed to further expanding our 4G services across Bihar and Jharkhand. The availability of budget friendly smartphones is driving a massive uptake of 4G data and Airtel aims to be the 4G network of choice of customers in Bihar and Jharkhand with its superior data experience. Airtel’s affordable plans and packs offer access to exciting digital services like music, movies, LIVE TV on mobile and we invite customers to experience our 4G network.”

Airtel offers the widest bouquet of mobile services in Bihar and Jharkhand backed by a wide distribution channel over 150,000 retail outlets that serves customers even in deep rural pockets. Airtel’s network now covers approximately 98% of the population in these geographies.

Special focus on Bihar and Jharkhand

Airtel was the first operator to launch 4G/3G services in the region. Airtel’s network umbrella in the region covers all key urban, semi urban and rural areas including highways, tourist destinations and trade centers. It has the widest network footprint with network coverage even in remote locations.

As part of its network transformation program - Project Leap, Airtel plans to roll out 2,000 new mobile sites across the region in FY 2019-20 with the aim of stepping up network capacity and taking services deeper into rural and unconnected areas. This rollout will effectively translate to deployment of five new Airtel mobile sites per day across the region.

With this planned rollout, the number of Airtel’s mobile sites across Bihar and Jharkhand will go up by 16% to 14,512 and considerably enhance the network experience for customers. Airtel also plans to deploy 2,000 km of fresh optic fiber in the region to take its fiber footprint to 19,000 km. The addition of fresh fiber capacity will support the growth of high speed data services in the region.