Tech Telecom

Vodafone India, being the second largest telecom operator of our country which has 4G presence across 5 circles and preparing to offer 4G services in other 4 circles, might launch 4G services starting this week in those circles in a phased manner.

According to sources, the operator is working on testing 4G services in some locations whereas most of locations has already been tested  for 4G services in circles of West Bengal, Gujarat, Haryana & U. P. East. ‘Unlike rapid 3G expansion, the company’s 4G services would be rolled out slowly in a phased manner, starting with major cities across those circles.’ said a Vodafone employee on request of anonymity.

Vodafone is already offering FDD LTE network on 1800 Mhz in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Karnataka & Kerala and plans to use the same frequency airwaves for 4G rollout in the new circles as well. Out of the 4 new circles Vodafone has less than 5 MHz of spectrum in Haryana and West Bengal where it has to initially use narrow band LTE till it manages to get more spectrum.

Compared to regular 4G speeds, narrow band 4G offers much lower data speeds but operators like Telenor India are already offering 5-10 Mbps download speeds in some areas using the same technology. We’re expecting Vodafone’s narrow band 4G speed would be similar to that speed and if they don’t eventually this will decrease it user base and some may shift to other service providers.

In circles like Gujarat, Haryana & West Bengal the company has already started offering 4G SIM upgradation at zero cost. Existing 3G sims are not capable to handle 4G services, so customers has to replace their existing SIM cards to new ones for using 4G services. Also, customers who are booking 4G SIM card would get additional 4G data once they launch the high speed data network. With 4G launch in these circles where Vodafone dominates the GSM market share would help the telecom provider to battle with other 4G players including Airtel, Idea & Jio. Also it would become the third largest 4G operator with 4G presence across 9 circles, after the launch.

The British telecom giant’s Indian unit which is nearing the 200 million subscriber mark soon is also looking to expand 4G services in other circles also through spectrum trading route with smaller operators.