Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel today announced the launch of its VoLTE services in Chennai. A few weeks back, we exclusively reported that Airtel is testing VoLTE in Chennai, and the official launch might happen anytime. Airtel VoLTE services are currently present in Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana and Karnataka, and now, Chennai joins the list.
Furthermore, we have received Airtel VoLTE in Pondicherry and Kolkata regions too. Maybe, Airtel will expand the VoLTE footprint to Kolkata and Pondicherry in the near future. With Airtel VoLTE, customers can experience HD voice calls along with much faster call set up time. In our personal experience, we found out that the call set up time is less than three seconds, on par with Reliance Jio's VoLTE call set up time.
For the unaware, Airtel launched VoLTE in Mumbai back in September 2017 and is expecting to launch on a pan-India basis by March 2018. Airtel VoLTE is different when compared to Reliance Jio VoLTE. A handset manufacturer should separately take VoLTE patches from Airtel and roll out a new software update for Airtel VoLTE services.
Currently, popular smartphones such as Apple iPhone X, OnePlus 5T, OnePlus 5, Samsung Galaxy S7, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, etc. have support for Airtel VoLTE. You can check the entire list of Airtel VoLTE supported smartphones by heading over here. Airtel is working hard with handset manufacturers to add more smartphones on board as soon as possible.
Commenting on the launch, Manoj Murali, HUB CEO, Kerala & Tamil Nadu, Bharti Airtel Ltd. said: "Having built a world-class 4G network in Chennai, we are delighted to extend our service portfolio by rolling out VoLTE calling in the city. We invite our customers to experience the service. We plan to expand our VoLTE footprint across Tamil Nadu over the next few months."
To enjoy Airtel VoLTE service in a supported smartphone, customers should get an Airtel 4G SIM card and must ensure to insert it in the SIM 1 slot of your smartphone, in case if your device is a dual-SIM one.
