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Airtel operates in all telecom circles of India. Airtel is the largest operator in rural India, with 256.80 millionn subscribers as of July 2016.[11]

3G Edit
On 18 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction was completed and Airtel paid the Government of India ₹122.95 billion (US$1.8 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount spent by an operator in that auction. Airtel won 3G licences in 13 telecom circles of India: Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (West), Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, North East, and Jammu & Kashmir.[12] Airtel also operates 3G services in Maharashtra & Goa and Kolkata circles through an agreement with Vodafone and in Gujarat and Punjab through an agreement with Idea. This gives Airtel a 3G presence in 15 out of 22 circles in India. Airtel is fined by DoT 3.50 billion for not stopping offering 3G Services through Roaming Pacts outside its Licensed Zones in Seven Circles.

On 20 September 2010, Bharti Airtel said that it had given contracts to Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei Technologies to set up infrastructure for providing 3G services in the country. These vendors would plan, design, deploy and maintain 3G–HSPA (third-generation, high-speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the company had won 3G licences. While Airtel awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies was introduced as the third partner for three circles.[13]

Airtel launched 3G services in Bangalore on 24 January 2011.[14] On 27 January 2011, Airtel launched 3G in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. On 27 July 2011, 3G services were launched in Kerala's 3 largest cities – Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram.[15]

Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500 cities through intra-circle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel had about 5.4 million 3G customers of which 4 million are 3G data customers as of September 2012.[16]

4G Edit
On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended. Airtel paid ₹33.1436 billion (US$490 million) for spectrum in 4 circles: Maharashtra and Goa, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata.[17] The company was allocated 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz frequency band. Airtel's TD-LTE network is built and operated by ZTE in Kolkata and Punjab, Huawei in Karnataka, and Nokia Siemens Networks in Maharashtra and Goa.[18] On 10 April 2012, Airtel launched 4G services through dongles and modems using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming the first company in India to offer 4G services. The Kolkata launch was followed by launches in Bangalore (7 May 2012),[19] Pune (18 October 2012),[20] and Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula (25 March 2013).[21] Airtel obtained 4G licences and spectrum in the telecom circles of Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Mumbai after acquiring Wireless Business Services Private Limited, a joint venture founded by Qualcomm, which had won BWA spectrum in those circles in the 4G spectrum auction.[22]

Airtel launched 4G services on mobile from February 2014. The first city to get the service was Bangalore.[23][24] Airtel has started their 4G services in Karnal and Yamunanagar in Haryana on 16 June 2015.[25] Airtel 4G trials has been started in Delhi from 18 June 2015.[26] Airtel had 1,20,000 4G subscribers as of May 2014.[25]

As of March 2016, Airtel provides 4G coverage in 350 cities in 15 circles.[27] Airtel extended its 4G network to 15 km off India's coastline, following a request by the Indian Navy.[28]