It seems that the entire telecom industry of India will soon be divided into two categories: 2G or 4G. There won't be any middle ground anymore
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Airtel, India's largest telecom operator, has declared that they will no longer support 3G network in the country. Their focus will be either 2G or 4G.
This is indeed a big news for the telecom users, because on one hand it promises faster speed, on the other hand, it also signifies a paradigm shift in the mobile Internet space.
In a related news, OpenSignal has said that India has the worst 4G speed, in the world.
Airtel: 3G No More, Only 4G or 2G
While sharing and discussing their stock position and earnings, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel made it clear that 3G is being turned off in the next 3-4 years.
As per Vittal, 50% of all phones which are shipped in India are feature phones, and this means that the market for 2G is yet to saturate. Whereas usage of 3G is coming down gradually, as more and more users are now opting for faster 4G.
He said,
“There is almost no spend that we are doing on 3G. Our view is in next 3-4 years we are likely to see 3G network actually shut down faster than 2G network because there are still 50 per cent of phone being shipped out in India that are feature phones.”
In fact, Airtel has already started using their 2100 megahertz band, meant for 3G services, for 4G services. Cutting-edge technology is being currently used by Airtel, which allows them to upgrade existing 3G infrastructure into 4G.
He said, “Some of the older radios are pure 3G which we need to replace. It will take its time..”
As per Airtel, the pace at which voice moves into the VoLTE protocol holds the key to 4G transformation.
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