4G Ecosystem Developing Well, Expect National Coverage Soon: Das

The ecosystem for 4G is moving quite well with availability of devices at attractive prices and operators rolling out infrastructure and soon there will be national coverage for 4G, Sandip Das, former managing director of Reliance Jio Infocomm said Tuesday.

Das said there will be rise in data consumption once 4G networks come up and phones are also available.

"The 4G infrastructure is being rolled out by all operators right now in the country... some networks are up and some are going to come up shortly and soon there will be national coverage for 4G," Das said in New Delhi.

He added the ecosystem for 4G devices is also moving in the right direction with manufacturers coming out with wide range of handsets at attractive prices.

"I think the second most important thing is availability of 4G phone and I think the ecosystem is moving quite well and a lot of manufacturers are now ready with a wide range of 4G phones that they are planning to launch at attractive price points," he said.

Das said once the networks come up and phones are also available, the data consumption will rise because people will experience very high quality data as well as speed.

In India, Bharti Airtel and Aircel are offering 4G services in some circles currently. Reliance Jio Infocomm, which holds pan-India 4G spectrum, plans to launch its services in 2015 in a phased manner.

Other operators like Vodafone and Idea Cellular have also bought spectrum in 1800Mhz band, in February auction last year, which will be used for rolling out 4G services in coming years.