Airtel eyes phase-out 3G services in 2 years, upgrade all customers to 4G

New Delhi: Indian telecom player Bharti Airtel Ltd is mulling phasing out its 3G service in two years and upgrading all its subscribers to the 4G network.

This move will help Airtel to cut down on costs and improve user experience, reported the Livemint.  The company plans to upgrade all its 3G users across India to 4G services, based on the VoLTE communication standard, said a person familiar with the development.

This move comes in the wake of new telecom player Relinace Jio Infocomm Ltd’s entry in 2016, which heralded the end of 3G in India. The easy availability of affordable 4G-enabled devices, especially with the arrival of the JioPhone, demands the switch to 4G.  “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,” said an Airtel spokesperson.

The VoLTE technology reduces cost of operations and improves the customer experience.

“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 source told Livemint.

 Currently, Jio is the only telecom player that allows VoLTE services across the country. Airtel offers VoLTE-based services only in Mumbai.