Airtel has launched its 4G LTE trails in Hyderabad and Vishakapatnam, after launching 4G trails Mumbai and Chennai last week. It is based on 1800MHz FDD-LTE band 3, which the company acquired last year. Hyderabad and Vishakapatnam become second and third cities in the country to get Airtel’s FDD-LTE service, after Chennai. Airtel currently offers TDD-LTE services in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Amritsar. For existing Airtel customers, the company is offering a complimentary upgrade to Airtel 4G at same price as 3G.
Commenting on the trial launch, Venkatesh Vijayraghavan, CEO – Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Bharti Airtel (India) said:
the launch of 4G is a powerful communication platform offering significant benefits for today’s mobile workplace, we at Airtel are excited to bring the power of 4G for our customers in Hyderabad and Vishakapatnam. Our customers will experience immense benefits with the launch of LTE– faster speeds, greater quality and superior value. Over the last few months, we at Airtel have made significant investments in building a robust 4G network.
For us, customers are at the very core of everything we do and delivering a compelling service experience for them is our foremost priority. We want our existing customers to be the first ones to enjoy the Airtel 4G experience and are offering them a free upgrade to Airtel 4G at the same price as 3G. We look forward to our customers’ valuable feedback towards delivering a truly world-class 4G experience for customers in both these cities.
The company said that it will gather customer feedback around the quality of its 4G services during 4G trails. Flipkart will be offering Airtel 4G with double the data benefits for customers buying select Flipkart-exclusive 4G handsets including smartphone from Xiaomi, Motorola, Lenovo, Asus and Huawei. Samsung will also offer double data on Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A5 smartphones.
Customers who have a smartphone with 4G support can upgrade to a 4G SIM at their nearest Airtel retail touch points across Hyderabad. You can head to airtel.in/4g/ from your phone, select Hyderabad, 4G for mobile, enter your mobile number and request for 4G compatible SIM. Airtel already announced that it will launch their 4G services in Coimbatore and Vellore soon.