The race to be the top telecom operator is still going on. From the past few months, Indian telecom sector is facing huge ups and downs due to the Jio effect. Major telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea are now offering many times more 4G data for the same price. Well, we all already know these are the side effects due to the inclusion of Reliance Jio.
Airtel to Offer VoLTE services to customers soon!
Now Bharti Airtel does not wants to stop by just adding new data plans. To take on their rival Bharti Airtel is also gearing up their services. To match service standards of Jio, Bharti Airtel is ready to roll out VoLTE soon. And according to telecomtalk.info, Airtel is already testing their services with various smartphone manufacturers. Furthermore, they have already finished deploying the required infrastructure. Before the public launch, they are now hosting service trials.
The service is set for a launch in the major markets at first. It is also said that the service will be expanded later this year to other cities in India. As per the sources, Airtel is testing their services with some devices that are available in the market at the moment. Not only that, some smartphones has already passed the test so you can expect the service to go live soon. Some months ago Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said,
VoLTE will be very relevant in the major markets or big cities in next 12-18 months, and even as the sub-GHz band is best in deploying voice, the 1800MHz band is also excellent.
Airtel still offers their network on the circuit-switch technology. Till date Reliance Jio is the only telecom operator in India to provide VoLTE services. Their promise to offer free calls to any networks in India is pulling a lot of crowd towards them. However, it looks like other telecom operators are now following the same route. Reliance Jio’s VoLTE services are using Nokia’s IMS technology.
Identically, Airtel also approached Nokia to deploy their VoLTE infrastructure last year. It is also worth mentioning that after Airtel decided to stop charging for domestic roaming, the launch of the VoLTE services may happen as soon as next month.
Other than Airtel, India’s 2nd largest telecom operator Vodafone India is also working on VoLTE services. Vodafone subscribers may get the services by the end of the year. Another telecom operator Idea is in talks with Ericsson and Nokia for VoLTE services. Tell us what you feel about VoLTE in the comments below.
