After earlier reports, Airtel has officially launched its 4G LTE trails in Chennai. It is based on 1800MHz FDD-LTE band 3, which the company acquired last year. Chennai becomes the first city in the country to get the Airtel’s FDD-LTE service. It currently offers TDD-LTE services in Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Amritsar. It is currently offering complimentary upgrade to Airtel 4G at same price as 3G.
Customers who have a smartphone with 4G support can upgrade to a 4G SIM at their nearest Airtel retail touchpoints across Chennai. You can head to airtel.in/4g/ from your phone, select Chennai, 4G for mobile, enter your mobile number and request for 4G compatible SIM. “We will gather customer feedback around the quality of its 4G services and assimilate these market insights into Airtel’s wider agenda of building a world-class 4G network infrastructure for the city”, said the company. It will also offer WiFi hotspot devices. Airtel plans to launch their 4G services in Coimbatore and Vellore next.
Commenting on the beta launch of 4G services in Chennai, George Mathen, CEO – Kerala & Tamil Nadu, Bharti Airtel (India) said:
As more and more Indians show a preference for consuming data and content over their mobile devices, we at Airtel are excited to bring the power of 4G for our customers in Chennai. Over the last few months, we at Airtel have made significant investments in building a robust 4G network here.
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 this city.
Airtel has partnered with Samsung for Airtel 4G SIM swap for customers buying 4G smartphones at Samsung India’s retail stores. Samsung will also offer bundled Airtel 4G SIMs along with Samsung 4G handsets in India in coming weeks. Airtel will also offer double 4G data on Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A5 smartphones. It will launch Samsung Core Prime 4G mobile smartphone in Airtel 4G in India markets soon.