Bharti Airtel and Qualcomm have signed an agreement for Bharti to acquire an interest in Qualcomm Asia Pacific’s Indian venture. Qualcomm holds BWA licenses in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala.

Under the agreement, Bharti has made an initial investment of approximately USD 165 million to acquire 49 percent interest in Qualcomm AP’s India entities. The agreement contemplates that once commercial operations are launched, subject to certain terms and conditions, Bharti would assume complete ownership and financial responsibility for the BWA entities by the end of 2014.

Bharti already has BWA licenses in four circles Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra and 3G licenses in thirteen circles in India. With this agreement, Bharti has secured a nation-wide broadband coverage through a combination of 4G and 3G, with its own networks in 18 circles. Bharti has already taken the lead in LTE TDD space by launching 4G services in Kolkata and Karnataka Circles.

Qualcomm expects to provide technical assistance to Bharti in connection with network architecture and optimization, infrastructure and device testing, as well as continuing to develop and support the underlying technology and the LTE TDD ecosystem.