Vodafone India today announced that it will roll out 4G services in the country by December 2015. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Kochi will be the first set of cities to get Vodafone 4G in the first wave of the roll-out by the end of the calendar year 2015. It has already started testing 4G services and has roped in technology infrastructure service providers for the network roll-out.
Globally, Vodafone has launched 4G in 18 countries. Vodafone acquired additional 4G (LTE) 1800 MHz spectrum in 5 circles – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kerala and Karnataka in February 2014 auctions. These circles together contribute close to 50% of the total data revenues, said the company. Vodafone will compete with Airtel, which already has 4G in several circles and Reliance Jio, which will also launch its 4G services by December 2015.
In a statement, Vodafone India said:
Vodafone India remains committed towards making significant investments in network expansion and for enhancing overall customer experience. With some of the latest technological developments on the anvil; Vodafone is building a robust and resilient network architecture with a strong backhaul to support the volumes and need for speed from customers.
Vodafone also said that it will also roll out 3G services in 7 circles – Assam, North East, UP West, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Odisha to expand its overall 3G footprint to 16 circles across the country. It did not reveal the exact time frame for the roll out. In FY 2014-15, Vodafone India added more than 23,000 telecom sites, taking its overall network footprint to more than 131,000 sites.