Bharti Airtel has been offering VoLTE service for nearly two years now, but the telco has so far restricted the service usage to the home circle itself. But with the recent network upgradations, Airtel has started providing VoLTE service in national roaming; In simple words, Airtel VoLTE enabled users can now make experience HD voice calls even while roaming. For example, if you're an Airtel customer in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana circle with VoLTE enabled handset, you can now use the technology to make faster voice calls in Delhi telecom circle too. Overall, we have 22 telecom circles in India and Airtel VoLTE has its presence in 21 circles with Jammu & Kashmir being an exception. Vodafone Idea also has its VoLTE service which has been working on national roaming since the launch.
Airtel VoLTE Now Works in National Roaming: What Does it Mean?
Back in September 2017, Airtel VoLTE service was launched to take on Jio VoLTE. Right after Airtel VoLTE introduction, the Sunil Mittal-led telco removed FUP limit on voice calling, a move which is intended to match Jio again. When the service was launched, it was limited to a few circles, but throughout the last 18 months, Airtel has expanded the service to 21 telecom circles. Except for Jammu Kashmir, Airtel VoLTE coverage is now available across all the 21 telecom circles.
Even though Airtel launched the service in major circles, several customers were not able to use it despite their handset having support. However, the issue has been fixed now and every Airtel customer with a supported handset can use Airtel VoLTE to enjoy HD voice calls. And the service is completely free.
Coming to the national roaming part, imagine if you're travelling to another telecom circles from your home circle, right after entering the other circle, Airtel VoLTE used to disappear. As noted, Airtel has fixed the issue and its VoLTE service can now be used in national roaming.
Airtel VoLTE Support Extended to 227 Devices
Almost all the smartphones releasing these days are coming with Airtel VoLTE support. For example, the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S10+, Galaxy S10, S10e, Redmi Note 7 Pro and Redmi Note 7 all support Airtel VoLTE out of the box. Besides the devices mentioned above, Airtel VoLTE is officially supported on 227 devices with smartphones from popular brands such as Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Asus and so on in the list.
Every smartphone with VoLTE feature supports Jio VoLTE, but that's not the case with Airtel and Vodafone Idea as they've to include their VoLTE patch to the phone's firmware manually. Last year, Airtel and Vodafone Idea used to add VoLTE support after the phone's launch, but it seems like that's no more the case this year. As noted, the Redmi Note 7 Pro and Redmi Note 7 comes with Airtel VoLTE by default out of the box.
