Airtel 4G Due On First Half of April, 2012

Airtel 4G Due On First Half of April, 2012 If you are disappointed to know Airtel did not launch 4G on March 20, be excited as it is coming fast. As per our sources Airtel may launch LTE-TDD based wireless broadband services in the first half of April, 2012 in Kolkata.

Last week the rumor of Airtel’s 4G launch in Kolkata hit internet and a lot of people, if not everyone had gone crazy to hear it.

Airtel had won spectrum for high-speed wireless broadband service in four telecom circles namely Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka and paid Rs 3,314.36 crore in 2010. The company was allocated 20 Mhz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 Ghz frequency band.

There is a rumour that ZTE may be the equipment partner for Airtel in Kolkata, while tower deal will be done with Indus Towers along with Bharti Infratel. Indus is largest tower company over the globe.

As 2.3 GHz spectrum band will have poor indoor coverage, it is expected Airtel will deploy small cells (femto cells) at places to provide better coverage. It is expected that at this initial stage of LTE roll out the coverage will be scarce and will be available at some pockets of the city. We expect that Airtel may use microwave and fiber optic based backhaul provider to support this ultra high speed wireless services.

At this stage industry leader Airtel is expected to come up with some dongles and some tablets to offer bundled data plans on 4G. This band of LTE spectrum (2.3GHz) is a new band if compared to western countries, as a result Indian private BWA service providers have to make some wise decision to roll out yet to mature LTE services. Many analysis say that in 5 years, LTE will have 20 miillion customers in India.

If we check the history, Kolkata was the first city to have mobile services (2G) in 1995, and today 2G is widely accepted. Can we see the same success with 4G if started with Kolkata?

Now we ask you can 4G be a superhit in India or will a be a flop show whats your take do share your views via comments.

Alen Pertin April 10, 2012 at 12:24 pm

Kindly install and activate 3G at Airtel towers of Bolung(Arunachal Pradesh)and Shantipur(Assam)

subhsh April 1, 2012 at 10:48 pm

well , it will be hit , if they provide unlimited plans without FUP . coz with limited usage it is nothing but junk , if anyone is using 4g mostly he is going to watch online movies and downloads , else he will go with 2g , which is cheap and its enough to get ride of other fking higher price . i think tablets demands are increasing so internet demands going to be increased in future . so 4g with unlimited plans will boom and btw it must be below 1000 rs to hit the market ,else no one will be interested to spend a single rupee to junk shit service . well i am using internet for a long time and i use the best internet service and when i used to ask other , for not using internet , they will come up with fking bill , which ruins the daily life expenditure . so why to waste time and money.if the work is done normally with 2g.

Kaushik March 27, 2012 at 1:44 am

Doesn’t seem to me that 4G will be a profitable business in India yet. 3G is still so costly and not even available in all areas in India. Oh yeah, it will be presence of the technology, that’s great, but 4G will be a few rich people’s cake.

Imraan March 25, 2012 at 1:15 pm

If the price is planned keeping in mind the middle-class majority of users, it ‘ll succeed, otherwise 4G ‘ll also be treated like 3G. Complete boycott !!

Sunny March 24, 2012 at 4:04 pm

If A Raja were the telecom Minister during the 3G/BWA auction, we would have been getting 3G service at 200 for 5GB and 4G Unlimited @500 as he might have given 3G spectrum at throwaway prices too. During his tenure, people of India seen cheapest call and 2G data rates. Tough his policies were not in Govt. interest but it were in Nations interest and moreover common man interest.

Faster Data services continue to be the “service for rich” in India.

AKS March 23, 2012 at 6:54 pm

ur new iPad review confirm..4G coming… he he he he…
let see the plans…

Sudhakar March 23, 2012 at 3:52 pm

Jagan T,
Well said.

openplus March 23, 2012 at 2:23 pm

Good news for heavy net surfer with the launch of 4G , 3G prices will be decrease heavily

varun March 23, 2012 at 1:14 pm

@Esmail
Excellent Information on Article bro..congrats and keep writing good things.

Jagan T March 23, 2012 at 12:33 pm

Still 3G is not used by its optimum, what is the use of 4G – even more costly technology. Common man needs affordable mobile internet connectivity with reliable speed. There is no use of implementing more and more new technologies without catering the basic need.

Esmail March 23, 2012 at 11:51 am

As we all know 4G which in India will be offered through LTE technology which is a completely new offering and will need complete new set of hardware as the currently available smartphones in the Indian market are not supporting LTE. also LTE is not friendly when it comes to backward compatibility to 3G HSPA+ HSDPA EDGE GPRS etc. which can be overcome with Circuit switch fallback (CSFB) but that will ensure that the LTE compatible smartphones wont come in cheap. Also currently the spectrum allotted to 4G in India is only in the 2300 MHz band and that of 3G is in the 2100 MHz band, so the phones which will be launched will support these bands, but in the near future TRAI will vacate the 700 MHz band for 4G and 1700 MHz band for 3G offering and again if the consumer wants to upgrade to these operators (which they would because the lesser the frequency of the waves higher the penetration and coverage so better network quality) they would have to again invest in buying newer phones. So a well informed buyer would wait for 4G rollout to happen pan India and for the competition to increase, and for the new spectrum to be allotted and by then the tariff would also get normalised, at that point the smartphones being offered would have pentaband 3G and universal 4G which would mean ease of International roaming as well.

Harish March 23, 2012 at 11:38 am

According to current trend,indian telecom companies always look at their american counterparts and decide rates,same happened with 3g and if we look for 4g,verizon offers 5gb for $50 ie approx rs 2500.so you can expect tariffs like this from airtel.

anil March 23, 2012 at 11:04 am

according to my observation from many years.
4G price will be same as the price of current 3G. and 4G never ever offer truly unlimited plan for sure.
and 4G customer will be less than 3G.as a result price will be high even next year 2013 also.

Pratul March 23, 2012 at 10:43 am

4G will require a new infrastructure by the service provider, a new band that will be licensed and was auctioned with a new device by the consumer. so 4G will not be cheaper. Masses will not go for it as they have just started to update their devices for 2G to 3G and will be reluctant to further incur cost and purchase new set of hardware for 4G. Besides 4G deployed in most of the countries is different, so devices from other countries will not work here. This will increase the device cost and further create a barrier for 4G penetration with 4G being a poor indoor coverage, this is perfect recipe for disaster. Also 4G initially will not support voice and will fall back on 3G for voice calls. RIL for this reason is trying to tie up with RCOM. So companies keep your fingers crossed on 4G and concentrate on 3G for now.

Arora March 23, 2012 at 9:20 am

4g Plan may be costlier than 3g,IT may be RS 100.Per 1MB LOL….@Kaushik

Jeeva March 23, 2012 at 8:30 am

It will Take time to popular.. bcoz 3G price is too high, when compared to this 4G also will be high.. Telecom Operators has to slash the tariff plans untill users will be very less, and there is no use of 4G…

Kaushik March 23, 2012 at 8:09 am

Talking about rumors, any ideas about 4G tariff plans?

dskushwaha March 23, 2012 at 5:37 am

If we check the history, 2G services were not widely accepted till the incoming call charges were abolished and outgoing charges were dropped below/at par with the existing (landline) charges.
So I don’t think 4G (or 3G) will be a big hit unless charges are dropped below existing landline broadband (BSNL or other ISPs)

Singh March 23, 2012 at 3:09 am

Here is what I think about 4G :

1)4G is only for data and not for voice.

2)I think 4G will not be beneficial for people on the move like in cars,other vehicles,trains etc.

3)Will 4G be LTE or Ultafast GSM or CDMA or what ?

Anyone with knowledge about the above,please shed some more light on the above and correct the above points if wrong.

Raju March 23, 2012 at 12:08 am

Gajendra :
4G will be successful only when RIL launches it in India. Till then the likes of Airtel chor will keep the 4G/3G prices high and not let 4G prosper! Companies like Airtel are ready to pay high interest cost on their 3G/4G spectrum, but will not reduce price to reasonable levels (read: not cheap).
2G in India became a hit and wide spread only because of one person/company – Shri Mukesh Ambani/RIL, who revolutionized 2G with cheaper call rates. Before that even 2G call rates were high due to operators like Airtel. Let RIL launch 4G and it will create the same revolution in broadband internet and will redefine India. All those idiots and cronies supporting Airtel led cartel will be shut up then and will be forced to follow/match RIL.

Saurabh Jain March 22, 2012 at 8:47 pm

It probably be going to succeed because of internet. Everybody need internet at every step of life. So 4G is basically for internet. Yes Backhaul infrastructure is not mature in India

chaitanya das March 22, 2012 at 8:25 pm

AS PER MY VIEW THE PRICE OF 4G SERVICE COMES DOWN WITH SPEED AFTER SUCESSFULL LAUNCH, BUT AT FIRST GOVT HAVE TO CLEAR ITS SPECTRUM TO USE FOR THIS SERVICE.
ALSO THE COMPANY LIKE AIRTEL MUST NOT LOWER THE PRICE UNTIL ANY OTHER SERIOUS OVERTAKERS LIKE RELIANCE OR AIRCEL… TILL THEN WAIT FOR A COMPEITITOR AND DO NOT USE WITH HIGH PRICE. THANKS

Sudhakar March 22, 2012 at 8:19 pm

To all :

I think telecomtalk has started joking also. 4G in this technologically ###### ?. Never. It will be a flop and without bothering about that they will jump to 5G !!!!!!.

Kunal March 22, 2012 at 7:44 pm

3G itself is not yet so successfull then 4G is too far…….

h rajpoot March 22, 2012 at 7:41 pm

After huge failure of 3g…now 4g???….i think telecos are using 3g,4g just for their status symbol…if not so than why even today some areas are not covered with 2g..

Gajendra March 22, 2012 at 7:09 pm

4G will be successful only when RIL launches it in India. Till then the likes of Airtel chor will keep the 4G/3G prices high and not let 4G prosper! Companies like Airtel are ready to pay high interest cost on their 3G/4G spectrum, but will not reduce price to reasonable levels (read: not cheap).

2G in India became a hit and wide spread only because of one person/company – Shri Mukesh Ambani/RIL, who revolutionized 2G with cheaper call rates. Before that even 2G call rates were high due to operators like Airtel. Let RIL launch 4G and it will create the same revolution in broadband internet and will redefine India. All those idiots and cronies supporting Airtel led cartel will be shut up then and will be forced to follow/match RIL.

AKS March 22, 2012 at 6:46 pm

Airtel againg making ppl april fool guys…

sAM March 22, 2012 at 5:49 pm

2G was only successful after the reduction of call charges accompanied with d increase of number of operators.

4G will not b successful unless n untill those things happen..

steve March 22, 2012 at 5:20 pm

It probably goes the 3G way.

sand March 22, 2012 at 5:15 pm

i dont think people are confused shaiju about tech.people are confused about one thing.why should i spend so much wen i wont need this much speed by spending so much?@Shaiju

sand March 22, 2012 at 5:12 pm

yes have heard a lot of this crap before 3g was launched and everyone knows how successful it has been.till any provider comes up with reasonable tariffs in a market like india neither 3g ,4g or watever is going to pick up in india.u would have only a handful of enthusiasts going the 3g or 4g way.A wide acceptance would only arrive with reasonable tariffs.

aditya mohan DAS March 22, 2012 at 5:12 pm