Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced the deployment of India’s first state-of-the-art Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology, a key enabler for 5G networks.

Airtel is starting with the first round of deployment in Bengaluru and Kolkata and will expand to other parts of the country soon, a company statement said.

Deployed as part of Airtel's ongoing network transformation programme, Project Leap, the Massive MIMO technology will expand existing network capacity by five to seven times using the existing spectrum, thereby improving spectral efficiency.

"Customers will now be able to experience two to three times superfast speeds on the existing 4G network. Data speeds will now also be seamless, offering enhanced user experience even indoors, in crowded places and high-rise buildings," the statement said.

"India is fast striding towards exponential and unprecedented data growth. Our latest deployment of Massive MIMO, will help us serve this demand and would also give an impetus to build a future ready network. The deployment gives us a strategic advantage to provide faster speeds and enhanced user experience for our customers, thereby translating into improved spectrum efficiency," said Abhay Savargaonkar, Director - Networks, Bharti Airtel.