Bangalore has become the 2nd city in India to have access to 4G LTE technology. After launch of 4G in Kolkata a few weeks back, Airtel has gone ahead and launched cutting-edge 4G LTE technology in IT hub of India, Bengaluru. 4G services are based on LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology which is capable of offering speeds of upto 40 mbps, three times that of 3G.
Although, Airtel is not a Pan – India BWA spectrum holder, it has taken the lead in implementing 4G services. It has secured spectrum in 3 Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab along with Kolkata Metro.
Tariff for Airtel 4G services
On the face of it, Airtel’s 4G rates are not that cheap. However, as an introductory offer, customers subscribing to 4G services will be given a cashback for the dongle / USB stick bringing device cost to zero. For Rs. 2999/- 4G subscribers will get 30GB data transfer. They also have other plans:
- Breakfree: Rs. 999/- for 6GB data
- Breakfree Max: Rs. 1399/- for 9GB data
- Breakfree Ultra: Rs. 1999/- for 18GB data
Airtel promises download speeds of 40 mbps & upload speeds of 20 mbps on their 4G network. After the data usage is exhausted, the internet speed will come down to 128 kbps.
To attract customers on 4G, Airtel is offering 10 movie titles free of cost during the first month. If customers wish to continue movie subscription after 1st month they can pay a monthly subscription of INR 149 and watch unlimited movies. Currently Airtel has only 35 movie titles, but are expected to add more movies to their catalogue in coming months.
Airtel has already launched 4G enabled Mi-Fi devices to ensure that consumers can benefit from it even though they may not have 4G on their mobile phones.
Although, 4G promises ultra-high speeds, expensive data rates may be a deterrent for the masses. Yes, their will be early adopters, but I presume most of the consumers will wait for the prices to fall before they start riding the 4G wave.
What do you think?