Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel has selected ZTE to roll out a LTE-TDD trial network in India, reports The Economic Times citing an executive with knowledge of the development. Bharti Airtel asked ZTE to roll out the network in Kolkata first, and may later extend the contract to other regions. The contract to cover the four circles where Airtel has spectrum for the services is valued at upwards of USD 300 million.

According to the paper\'s source, Bharti Enterprises CMD Sunil Mittal met ZTE chairman Hou Weigui to formalise ZTE\'s role in implementing the Airtel roll-out. While Airtel declined to comment, an executive from ZTE said that the operator had asked it to commission some 850 sites in the first phase of the Kolkata roll-out. Airtel is also learnt to be in talks with a clutch of LTE-TDD dongle and handset makers for end-user devices in the run-up to launching mobile broadband services by early 2012.