Airtel Starts 4G Trials in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack

As part of the trial offer, Airtel customers in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack can avail a complimentary upgrade to 4G at 3G prices, Airtel said in a statement.

The company will assimilate customer feedback from these early adopters and leverage the initial market response towards strengthening its 4G services in these cities, it added.

Airtel CEO (West Bengal and Odisha) Ravindra Singh Negi said, "As customers in India show an increasing propensity for consuming data services, we at Airtel are excited to take the lead in introducing the market to the power of blazing 4G speeds."

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Airtel has also announced go-to-market partnerships with Samsung and Flipkart for 4G devices, the statement said.

Further, 4G trials have been launched for existing Airtel customers in Delhi, Hyderabad, Vizag, Madhurai, Chennai, Coimbatore, and Mumbai.

Airtel's 4G services are available across India including recently launched in Hubballi-Dharwad, Ambala, Karnal, Yamunanagar, Hisar, Rohtak, Nasik, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Mangaluru, Bengaluru, Pune, Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara, Kapurthala, Moga, Bathinda and Patiala.

In the meanwhile, to counter Reliance Jio's bid to capture the 4G services market with low-cost bundled handsets, telecom major Bharti Airtel is reportedly planning to launch Airtel-branded smartphones for Rs. 4,000 by October-November.

"Airtel is in advanced stages to finalise vendors to launch dual mode 4G handset in the price range of Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 12,000. Negotiations are around if it should be only Airtel branded handset or co-branded handsets," a industry source privy to the development said.

The company is in discussions with Chinese vendors and even held talks with Taiwan based Foxconn, which has set up its mobile manufacturing plant in India.

Written with inputs from PTI