RCom likely to shut more 2G, 3G networks, sell the spectrum

Reliance Communications, which announced it was abandoning plans to merge with Aircel Cellular, indicated that it would focus on two segments – 4G and wired. Within wired, it would focus on enterprise services. The disclosure indicates that the company, — which recently shut down its GSM network in Gujarat — could close more and more […]

Reliance Jio, Vodafone & Airtel conducting pre-5G trials – ZTE

All three of India’s top mobile networks — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio — are currently conducting trials of a key 5G technology that makes use of a very high number of antennas to increase the capacity of the network, David An, the technology head of ZTE said today. “Today we are very glad […]

TRAI forcing the shut down of 2G networks – Idea Cellular CEO

Idea Cellular CEO Himanshu Kapania said sector regulator TRAI was forcing telecom operators to shut down their older networks as it pushes for the adoption of newer technologies, seeking urgent intervention from the government. Kapania said the move towards phasing out of older technologies could have a negative impact on connectivity, especially in areas like […]

RCom to shut down 2G GSM network in Gujarat

Reliance Communications said it has asked subscribers in Gujarat to move to its 4G network as its 2G spectrum in the state is expiring at the end of this month. “The Company has initiated migration of its customers in Gujarat circle to an all 4G network, prior to expiry of 2G spectrum in that circle […]

Bharti Airtel starts VoLTE roll-out, service live in Mumbai

Bharti Airtel launched its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services today, starting in Mumbai, and said call charges will remain the same. Airtel VoLTE, which works over 4G, will offer customers HD quality voice calls along with faster call set up time. “Airtel VoLTE will be available on popular 4G/LTE enabled mobile devices, which must have […]

BSNL to “shortly” launch 4G with VoLTE, Reliance Jio to face competition

Players like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone are heaving a sigh of relief that Reliance Jio has not unveiled any ‘monsoon surprise’ offer. However, state-owned BSNL may be about to increase the competition in the market with the launch of its 4G services shortly. Anupam Shrivastava, the chairman and managing director of the state-owned […]

Idea launches 4G in Srinagar, offers 84 GB for Rs 392

Idea Cellular, India’s third largest telco by revenue, launched its 4G services in Srinagar. This is the 26th town in Jammu & Kashmir to get Idea 4G services, which are also present in Jammu, Udhampur, Katra, Samba, Poonch, Rajauri, Kathua, in addition to Srinagar. “Idea 4G SIMs are now available at its company retail store […]

End of freebies? Vodafone prices 1GB/day for 28 days at Rs 392

With Reliance Jio not showing any signs of unveiling yet another ‘surprise’ offer, telecom tariffs in India seems set to rise, particularly for data. Vodafone today announced an new tariff pack that offers 1 GB of 3G or 4G data and free calls for Rs 392. However, unlike similar priced offerings by the company in […]

Reliance Jio starts turning off free services, urges users to recharge

Reliance Jio, the telecom firm that has caught the country by storm, has started turning off the connections of those subscribers who have not recharged their mobile phones since the beginning of April. In April, it had introduced the Summer Surprise offer, and gave around four months of validity for each recharge. The validity of […]

Idea Cellular likely to expand 4G offers this year

Idea Cellular, India’s third biggest telecom player by revenue, is likely to see its 4G data capacity rise to three times the current level over the next nine months, which is likely to push the price of data down further. This could impact Reliance Jio’s ability to stop its discounts and move to ‘full pricing’ […]

Bharti Airtel will launch VoLTE next year

Bharti Airtel is still testing its 4G voice or Voice over LTE service and a pan-India launch will take place only by January-March of 2018. “VoLTE is a very complex technology,” CEO Gopal Vittal said. “There is a lot of optimization. It has to be tested device by device,” he said, adding that it will […]

Is the JioPhone really free?

The latest entrant to India’s telecom market, Reliance Jio, has announced an unprecedented offer — a 4G enabled phone with support for apps and videocalling for free. According to Mukesh Ambani, customers do not have to pay anything for the phone as the cost of the phone will be returned to the buyer when he […]

RCom launches VPN services over 4G

Reliance Communications launched a virtual private network service over its 4G service for the use of businesses. VPNs use software to create a virtual tunnel between two or more end points on the Internet. Since these are not a real private networks — which would require dedicated connection between different end points — they offer […]

RIL stock up as Reliance Jio proves doubters wrong, avoids an April dip in subscribers

Shares of Reliance Industries rose 3.5% today — an extraordinary move for such a large company — after it emerged that not only did the company not lose subscribers when it made the transition from free to paid services in April, it actually added a few million. The result was that the new entrant had […]

Bharti Airtel to offer cheap 4G plans for all dongle users – report

With new operator Reliance Jio snapping at its heels, incumbent Bharti Airtel has decided to slash its data prices for everyone with the introduction of new 4G dongle plans, Telecom Talk blog reported quoting unnamed sources. At present, Bharti Airtel does not offer any plan that comes close to what new entrant Reliance Jio has […]

Reliance Jio puts more 4G spectrum to use to increase speeds

Reliance Jio, the 4G operator that has taken the market by storm, has deployed the extra spectrum that it bought last year, increasing the total spectrum in use in most markets by 20-25%. In most circles, Jio is operating with about 40-50 MHz of spectrum, and with the new spectrum, this has gone up to […]

Bharti Airtel to start refarming 2G spectrum for 4G this year

India’s largest telecom services company by revenue and spectrum holding, Bharti Airtel, will start diverting its 2G spectrum to add to its 4G network in the second half of the ongoing financial year, the company’s CEO said. The move will help increase 4G capacity of the operator by adding a carrier (5 MHz block) of […]