Gearing up to take the early bird advantage in the National Capital Region (NCR), Bharti Airtel is planning to roll out 4G lTE long term evolution (lTE) service for mobile users in a month’s time in the country’s capital. First starting from Gurgaon, country’s largest telecom operator is already in the testing phase and has upgraded nearly 450 towers in Gurgaon to provide 4G lTE network.
While talking to The Pioneer, highly placed industry source holding complete knowledge of the development said, “Airtel plans to launch 4G lTE in the NCR region. In the first phase, the services will be rolled out in Gurgaon only. In order to support 4G lTE network, the operator has already made necessary upgrades in almost 450 towers.”
Airtel wants to be the first telecom operator to launch 4G lTE services in NCR, the sources further added. Reliance Jio Infocomm, Airtel’s closest rival, is planning to launch the 4G lTE services by the end of this year.
After the first phase roll out is successful, Airtel is expected to launch it in Delhi also. Airtel is already in the testing phase of the 4G lTE network in the Gurgaon region. “The company has already distributed 4G lTE sim cards among a few of its employees. This is being done to field test the network and ensure a smooth roll out,” sources said while commenting on the preparations Airtel is doing.
Meanwhile, Airtel also launched 4G lTE Internet services for mobile phones in Chandigarh and neighbouring Mohali and Panchkula on Thursday. While 4G lTE services were introduced in the region last year through dongles, Airtel’s mobile service customers could until now access the Internet only at 2G speeds. Chandigarh is the second city, after Bangalore, to get Airtel’s 4G lTE services on mobiles.
As per the statement issued by Airtel, customers using Apple’s iPhone 5s or 5c have to upgrade their sim card and select a 4G lTE plan or pack to start using the faster Internet service on their handsets. Apart from the iPhone 5s and 5c, Airtel’s 4G lTE sim will also work on Xolo lT 900 and lG G2 handsets.
While talking on the sidelines of the launch of 4G lTE services in Chandigarh, Bharti Airtel’s Hub CEO (Upper North), Manu Sood said that as per estimates, 6 per cent of all mobile connections in India will use 4G lTE services by 2016, which will be 36 per cent of total mobile data traffic.
“Given the large mobile subscriber base and increasing penetration of affordable handsets, the number of mobile Internet users is expected to go up to 330 million by 2016,” Sood said, adding that the country has the third-largest Internet subscriber base in the world with more than 100 million users.
Airtel is already offering 4G lTE services in three other cities including Kolkata, Bangalore and Pune. Gurgaon would be the third city where Airtel would offer 4G lTE services to mobile users.