Bharti Airtel re-farms mid-band spectrum to enhance 5G network, pilots standalone tech

Airtel is the first telecom in India to offer both standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) 5G networks after re-farming its mid-band spectrum.

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On Monday, Bharti Airtel announced that it is re-farming existing mid-band network spectrum (1800, 2100, 2300 MHz bands) to enhance 5G coverage across the country.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, said in a statement, “As more customers pivot to our 5G services, we have re-farmed our mid-band spectrum, which was being used for 4G services.”

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“With this, we are also ready to launch standalone technology. This will mean that the Airtel network will be the first network in India to run on both standalone and non-standalone modes, allowing us to deliver the best experience in the market,” Sekhon said.

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The company successfully piloted seamless SA (standalone) and NSA (non-standalone) switching on its 5G network in Rewari, Chennai, and Bhubaneswar to cater to the exponential growth in 5G traffic.

Airtel also confirmed it is working with smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to push combined NSA and SA binaries with carrier aggregation functionality, which enables smartphones to seamlessly switch between NSA and SA 5G networks.

The 5G network on Airtel was limited to just non-standalone standards, and with this development, Airtel became the first telecom in the country to offer both standalone and non-standalone 5G networks.

Right now, only Jio offers an SA 5G network, which is superior to NSA and offers higher download speeds along with lower network latency.