Vodafone India to start rolling out 4G services in five cities from December

Vodafone India has announced that it will start rolling out its 4G services from December starting with Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Kochi, battling it out with market leader Bharti Airtel and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm.

According to a statement by the local unit of UK’s Vodafone group on Friday, Vodafone India is testing its upcoming 4G services and partnering with global technology infrastructure service providers for the network rollout.

Moreover, it is also ensuring the presence of a robust architecture with a strong backhaul to support high volumes and deliver high network speeds since as the key differentiator is the 4G battle is slated to focus on customer experience.

The statement also added “Vodafone India will also roll out its own 3G networks in 7 circles- Assam, North East, UP West, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Odisha, to expand its overall 3G footprint to 16 circles across the country."

While Bharti Airtel can boast of the first mover’s advantage having already launched its 4G services across 300 cities and town, Jio has reportedly started beta trials for its data and voice services using ‘long term evolution’ (LTE)- a technology standard for offering high-speed 4G services. Idea Cellular on the other hand, expects to launch its services only next year.

Vodafone India, in the Februaru 2014 spectrum sale had acquired 4G LTE airwaves in five circles, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Kerala and Karnataka, which collectively earn approximately 50% of the company’s total data revenues.

Vodafone UK has however already launched 4G services in 18 countries. It has over 20 million 4G customers across the group.

Image credit: Indiatimes