Bharti Airtel is planning to install 8,000 small cells across the country. The move is aimed at increasing the operator’s wireless network access speeds and improving network coverage in high data traffic areas.

To this end, Bharti Airtel is in talks with the Urban Development Ministry and the Resident Welfare Associations of various cities for installation of small cells on bus stops and street poles.

Bharti Airtel had earlier launched a Wi-Fi application called Airtel Hangout with an aim to shift data traffic away from the cellular network to help decongest it and improve services. This Wi-Fi offloading strategy of the operator includes the deployment of small cells as well.

Further, in order to tackle capacity issues and improve overall customer experience, Bharti Airtel has also started investing in Self Organising Networks (SON), an automated technology that enables the network to set itself up and manage resources to enable optimum performance. The operator has deployed SON in metro cities and plans to cover other parts of the country soon.