OTF Exclusive Airtel plans to stop 3G in two years, offer VoLTE nationwide

[Jithin91]

Airtel plans to migrate all its 3G users across India to 4G services based on VoLTE over the next few months, a move that will help it save on costs and improve user experience

Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to phase out its 3G service in two years and upgrade all subscribers using the service to faster 4G networks in a move that will help India’s largest telecom operator save on costs and improve user experience.
The company plans to migrate all its 3G users across the country to 4G services, based on the VoLTE communication standard, over the next few months, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

What we need is that every base site that we have, we need to add a new technology so that the rollout that we are doing currently is almost entirely on 4G. Our 3G rollout is over and I would say 3G in anyway in 2-3 years, we will have to shut it down. Our 3G network will also shift to 4G. And these are mostly software switches,” the person cited above said, requesting anonymity. The company believes “that 3G networks will get phased out in India well ahead of most countries in the world”. All new smartphones being shipped today support 4G (along with 3G) and given that 4G technology is much more spectrally efficient compared to 3G, the progression to 4G will be logical for operators. We would, however, not like to comment on speculation regarding our network plans. We would ideally like to keep the customer on the same technology. For that, you need a ubiquitous 4G layer across the country, which is what we are trying to build right now. Once you have that and if you have VoLTE, then the voice runs on the same 4G layer. Otherwise, I have data running here and the moment I make a call, I slip back to 3G and then I go back to 4G

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[Shivraj]

But some 4g mobile not supporting volte

 

[Siva]

Good move from Airtel. If this happens, Jio will not have anything special!

 

[im_dude]

In 2 years we will have commercial 5g.So this is inevitable.

 

[Jithin91]

In 2 years we will have commercial 5g.So this is inevitable.

 

[Ratnesh]

Now airtel is copying everything from Jio
Plan~ set~and customer too

 

[Kiran Reddy]

Airtel should first concentrate on basic coverage and then plan on these things.

For me new entrant Jio Coverage appears to be better than Airtel which has been there from decades.

 

[Bapun]

Airtel To Hang Up On 3G Service, Focus On 2G, 4G, says CEO Gopal Vittal

"Where we have second career of 3G or third career then through flip of software you get incremental capacity on 3G. Most of that spectrum will finally go towards 4G for which we will need to have radio units," Vittal said.
He said that in some telecom circles the company has installed modern 3G equipment which can support 4G services but the initially deployed equipments for 3G services will need to be replaced.

 

[Prime]

Got SMS from Airtel.

Are they starting Volte in NCR?

Dear Customer, to improve your service experience, we are upgrading our systems tonight. There would be no impact on your services however in case you get no network on your mobile, please switch off and switch on your phone. Inconvenience is deeply regretted

 

[Sai Jai]

Got SMS from Airtel.

Are they starting Volte in NCR?

Yes Me too got same message last month getting ready for volte