Vodafone Idea continues to refarm the 3G spectrum to enhance its 4G services. As per the latest development, Vi has successfully refarmed its 3G spectrum to 4G across 11 cities in Gujarat. The telco already refarmed its 3G spectrum to 4G in other circles like Delhi & NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The refarming of 3G spectrum will substantially enhance Vi's GIGAnet 4G capacity in these cities. Furthermore, Vi also added 5 MHz of 2100 MHz band spectrum deployed to increase the total 4G bandwidth, which results in faster download and upload speeds apart from the better indoor coverage. Having said that, Vi has refarmed the 3G spectrum in only select cities of Gujarat which are listed below.
Vi Refarms 3G Spectrum to 4G for Improved Services in Gujarat
Vodafone Idea has successfully migrated the 3G spectrum to 4G in Ahmedabad, Anand, Bhavnagar, Gandhidham, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar, Morbi, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Vapi reinforcing existing 4G capacity. As noted, Vi also deployed additional 5 MHz of 2100 MHz spectrum band in the circle to enhance indoor coverage. The upgradation of 4G infrastructure with the migration of 3G spectrum to 4G, gives Vi GIGAnet 4G the triple advantages of wider coverage, network quality as well as stronger traffic carriage capacity in Gujarat. Vodafone Idea also did the same upgradation in few other cities like Bengaluru, Delhi & NCR and Mumbai.
Recently, Ookla rated Vi as the fastest 4G network in Gujarat. Vi customers can enjoy the fastest 4G experience when they use a 4G SIM in a 4G handset. Vi 3G customers can upgrade to a 4G SIM card at no extra cost. Vodafone Idea confirmed that it would continue to offer 2G services in Gujarat.
The pandemic has brought a lot of changes in consumer behaviours and Vi is trying to meet the growing demands of its users. Slowly, Vodafone Idea will phase out its 3G network and upgrade all the existing users to 4G, by retaining 2G network. For the unaware, Bharti Airtel already phased out its 3G network across India and the telco is now operating on just 2G and 4G networks. Very soon, Vodafone Idea will also join Bharti Airtel. Both the telcos clearly stated that they would continue offering 2G services. While Bharti Airtel has a very good 4G subscriber base, Vodafone Idea still has a lot of 2G subscribers across the country. In fact, Vi's 2G user base is almost on-par with that of BSNL.