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NEW DELHI: India’s biggest telecommunications company Bharti Airtel has announced plans to invest around $9 billion to upgrade infrastructure in the world’s second biggest mobile phone market over the next three years.
The announcement comes at a time when mobile carriers in India have been criticized by both consumers and the government over the frequency of cut-offs during calls and other service-related issues.
The operators have mostly blamed problems on inadequate numbers of mobile phone towers to meet the demands of a fast expanding market.
CEO Gopal Vittal said in a statement the investment would pave the way for the creation of “a world class network in three years.”
The 600 billion rupee investment program (around $9 billion) was “aimed at perceptibly improving network quality and delivering the best customer experience,” the statement added.
India’s rapidly expanding market already has around 950 million mobile phone subscribers including 140 million smartphones. A Cisco study earlier this year said the number of smartphones in India could rise to around 650 million in the next four years.