Videocon to roll out 4G services in six circles by year-end

"LTE technology offering better speed and connectivity to consumers will in first phase shall be rolled out in six circles of Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, UP-East, UP-West and Bihar by this year end," Videocon Technologies Director & CEO Arvind Bali told reporters.

"The technology offering high-speed data services has the potential to overcome the handicaps posed by the 3G services. LTE can offer 20-50 times higher speed over 3G to consumers," he claimed.

He was in Ahmedabad to launch new tariff plans and company's aggressive expansion plans for Gujarat, after getting new spectrum licence on January 18, this year.

LTE, marketed as 4G LTE is a standard for wireless communication of high speed data for mobile phones and data terminals.

"We got a new spectrum licence on January 18, 2013, which enables us to use it for any technology over the next 20 years, and now we shall be taking many leaps during this span," Bali said.

The company plans to become a major player in the International Long Distance(ILD) telephony services, dominated by leading telecom players like Vodafone, Airtel and others.

The government issues a different type of licence to telecom players to operate in this segment, which as per industry estimates is growing by 8-10 per cent annually.

"We have got pan-India 22 licences for this ILD and National Long Distance service and our maximum budgeting shall be for it," Bali told PTI.

The company is eyeing a revenue of Rs. 300 crore in starting year of the ILD service.

"The trial runs for the service have already commenced, and we plan to start it from the next financial year," Bali said.

Under this service, the traffic coming from foreign countries is distributed by the license holder amongst other operators.

For the troubled telcom industry Bali said voice calls will be the big driver going forward. While the growth would be high in data download services.