Airtel today announced launch of its 4G LTE services in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula taking the total number of cities to six. Airtel has already launched their 4G services in Kolkata, Bangalore and in December of last year Pune was the 3rd city of launch.
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.
According to the press release sent to us – the pricing of 4G services in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula will be same as other cities. As an Introductory offer, Airtel is offering various goodies who want to be early adopters of 4G revolution.
Introductory Offer for Airtel 4G services
| Plan | Cash back | Monthly
Bill Discount |
Period | Remarks | |
| Break free | 999 | 999 | 167 | 6 | 1 month rental off |
| Break free Max | 1399 | 2798 | 466 | 6 | 2 Month rental off |
| Break free Ultra | 1999 | 3749 | 312 | 12 | 75% device cost off |
| Break free Ultimate | 2999 | 4999 | 417 | 12 | 100 % device cost off** |
| Break free Supreme * | 4799 | 4999 | 417 | 12 | 100% device cost off** |
One of the main issues with adoption of 4G currently in India that Airtel as well as other operators will face is lack of 4G support on mobile phones. Except for some very high-end smartphones (costing above Rs. 35000), none offers 4G support. If a buyer is still keen on experiencing 4G, they will need to buy a separate 4G enabled router type device that costs around Rs. 5000.
Luckily with some of the introductory plans from Airtel, this device comes free of cost to the customer.
Reliance Jio Infocomm (who has Pan-India BWA license) plans to start offering their services by the end of the year. All other providers are also expected to launch their 4G services this year.
Airtel does not have a Pan–India license to offer 4G services, however, with launch of 6 cities across India, they have taken lead in implementing 4G services. During BWA spectrum auction, Airtel secured 3 Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab along with Kolkata Metro. Last year, Airtel acquired 49 percent stake in Qualcomm’s India BWA entities allowing them access to lucrative circles like Mumbai & Delhi along with Haryana and Kerala where it does not own 4G spectrum.
I am really interested in knowing the real speeds that 4G technology offers to users, especially in India. If any of our readers have used it, do let us know the experience.
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Its a great news for the Airtel customers who are using 2g and 3g services at Chandigarh and Mohali. They can enjoy 4G service with more speed. 4G is counted as the latest technology mobile service therefore more and more people are interested to join Airtel network for its high technology based 4g service.