Bharti Airtel is expected to launch its LTE service in Delhi shortly

Bharti Airtel is expected to launch its LTE service in Delhi shortly after it agreed to make a payment ahead of a legal appeal it is engaged in.

Bharti Airtel gained spectrum in the city following the acquisition of the former Qualcomm subsidiary, Wireless Business Services in April 2013, but the government demanded a fee of Rs 436 crore for merging the two companies.

Merging the companies is unusually important this time as they hold different types of spectrum licenses. A merger would enable Airtel to run all its services across spectrum held by both companies.

Airtel appealed to the dispute resolution service, TDSAT, which ruled that Airtel can proceed with launching the service ahead of the final ruling. However, Airtel had to give an undertaking to a court that it would make the payment within 8 weeks if its appeal failed.

Huawei is understood to have been given the contract to deploy LTE infrastructure in the city.