Bharti Airtel MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Gopal Vittal today after the launch of Project Next announced that the company is trialing 4G VoLTE (Voice Over LTE) services across five circles in the country and will officially launch VoLTE across it circles later this year.
Airtel will take on Reliance Jio that launched pan-India 4G LTE services with VoLTE (Voice Over LTE) support back in September last year. Earlier report said that Airtel signed a $60 million (Rs. 402 crore) pan-India deal with Nokia to implement VoLTE calling technology.
Last year Airtel deployed 4G Advanced technology (carrier aggregation across TD LTE and LTE FDD) in several circles that promises 4G data speeds of up to 135 Mbps. It also deployed ‘Dual Carrier’ technology in several circles like Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan and more that promises 4G-like data speeds on 3G.
Earlier this year Idea Cellular announced that it will launch VoLTE services for its customers in all of its 4G Circles within this year. Vodafone is also said to launch VoLTE services soon.