Airtel Launches 4G Trials for Existing Customers in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam

Bharti Airtel on Monday said it has launched 4G trials exclusively for its existing customers in Hyderabad in Telangana and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

As part of this, customers across these two cities can now avail of a complimentary upgrade to Airtel 4G at 3G prices, Airtel said in a statement.

Announcing the beta launch, Venkatesh Vijayraghavan, CEO - Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Bharti Airtel (India), said the company had made significant investments in building a robust 4G network.

(Also See: Airtel Launches 4G Trials for Existing Customers in Mumbai)

"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 customers in both these cities", Vijayraghavan said.

To avail of this offer, existing Airtel customers with 4G ready mobile devices can walk into any of Airtel's retail touchpoints across Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam and upgrade to a 4G SIM and "experience mobile Internet speeds like never before", the mobile operator said.

Airtel has also announced go-to-market partnerships with Samsung and Flipkart to proliferate 4G devices and transition more and more customers to experience the fastest browsing experience.

(Also See: Airtel Set to Begin 4G Trial in Chennai; Hyderabad, Mumbai Next)

In weeks to come, Samsung will offer bundled Airtel 4G SIMs, along with all Samsung 4G handsets available in the Indian market. Airtel 4G offers with double data benefits are now available for Samsung's Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A5 mobile devices.

Samsung will also be looking at launching its all new Core Prime 4G mobile phone in Airtel 4G markets, the release said.

As part of a new partnership, Flipkart will be offering Airtel 4G with double data benefits for customers buying select 4G handsets.

Earlier in April 2012, Airtel had launched India's first 4G service in Kolkata. Airtel's 4G services are now available across India, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chandigarh and Amritsar.