India’s largest mobile service provider, AirTel has acquired 49% of stake from Qualcomm India for $165 million to widen its 4G service in the country.
While Barathi AirTel already got BWA license in four major regions – Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra and Kolkata. With this new share acquisition, the largest mobile service provider has secured rights for a nationwide 4G and 3G licences in 18 new circles. Qualcomm had initially paid $1 billion to acquire licences for regions like Mumbai, Delhi, Kerala and Haryana.
We recently tested out AirTel 4G internet, when our team was there for the limited Press Release event by LG, and it was pretty amazing. We got speeds as promised by AirTel and we clocked about 50mbps at the highest point on an Indian server.
Talking about the their new stock acquisition, the company says:
“Bharti has made an initial investment of approximately $165 million to acquire 49 percent interest in Qualcomm AP’s India entities partly by way of acquisition of 26 percent equity interest equally held by Global Holding Corporation Private Limited and Tulip Telecom Limited, and the balance by way of subscription of fresh equity in those entities,”
But still, AirTel is yet to make its debut for 4G service in one of the most important state in India, Tamil Nadu. We have contacted AirTel and our source says that it is already in works in the state and we will get you posted about the progress.