Idea Cellular Plans to Launch VoLTE in 2018; to Deploy 4G on 2500 Mhz

India’s third largest telecom service provider, Idea Cellular, today revealed that it would launch voice over LTE or VoLTE service on its 4G LTE network by early calendar year 2018. The company, however, earlier said that it would introduce VoLTE within 2017 calendar year.

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According to media reports, Idea Cellular is currently in talks with telecom gear vendors like Ericsson and Nokia for the deployment of VoLTE services.

Currently, Reliance Jio is the only telecom operator, which is offering nationwide VoLTE services to its customers. Bharti Airtel, the country’s leading telecom operator by users, will soon join the VoLTE race by launching VoLTE-based voice calling in key markets or big cities by the end of FY18, with trials underway in 5-6 key markets, its chief executive Gopal Vittal recently said on Wednesday.

Vodafone India, the country’s second largest telecom operators, is already trialling VoLTE in select areas

Idea Cellular also revealed that it would deploy a 4G network using 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz spectrum band in five of its leading markets during the current financial year. It added that the deployment of 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz spectrum band would further boost Idea’s 4G capacity in these key markets.

Idea Cellular has added 5724 new 4G cell sites and 1608 new 3G cell sites in the first quarter ended June 30, 2017, taking the overall 4G cell site count to 46,576, and 3G cell site count to 70,810. The number of the 2G cell site, however, has come down from 131,486 in the fourth quarter to 131,059 in the quarter. Notably, Idea Cellular’s overall user base has declined from 189.5 million in the Q4 to 189 million in the first quarter.