Vodafone 4G LTE services to be launched by December 2015, to expand 3G footprint

| Updated: Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 12:10 [IST]

Vodafone India is soon to take on Airtel's existing and Reliance Jio's upcoming 4G LTE services. The second largest telecom operator company in India, Vodafone has announced that it will launch its 4G services by end of the year 2015. The services will first be rolled out in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Kochi, followed by other circles.

Vodafone announces 4G LTE service in India

In addition, the company has also revealed that it will expand its 3G footprint to 16 circles in India, by adding its own 3G networks in 7 circles, including Assam, North East, UP West, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Odisha.

The company has mentioned that it has started testing out 4G services across the aforementioned circles. Vodafone India will launch the fourth generation telecom services in partnership with global technology infrastructure service providers, which includes Ericsson and Nokia. The company claims that it is working on "building robust and resilient network architecture with a strong backhaul to support the volumes and need for speed from customers."

Vodafone India acquired 4G LTE spectrum in 5 circles including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kerala and Karnataka in February 2014 auctions. The company says that these five circles are the major revenue generators for Vodafone India. The operator gets up to 50 percent of the total data revenues from these circles.

Bharti Airtel provides 4G LTE services in 296 towns, including Bengaluru, Pune, Nasik, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Mangaluru, Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara, Kapurthala, Moga, Bathinda, Patiala, Tawang, Kohima, and Dimapur among others. Also, the company is running 4G trials in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Mumbai.

Reliance Jio on the other hand is likely to launch its 4G LTE service pan India, by this December.