Airtel slashes 4G data rates 31%; doesn’t name rollout date

With the 2G market in India virtually saturated, Bharti Airtel, the country's biggest telecom operator, has turned its focus on the more valuable 4G market. The company today announced a starting plan for 4G data plans at Rs450 onwards in Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune and Chandigarh, circles in which it won spectrum in the 2010 auction.

This is down 31 per cent from the Rs650 starting price for 4G that it had announced earlier. "Airtel will offer 4G speeds at 3G price-points,'' a company official said.

This comes just a week after the company slashed 2G data tariffs by as much as 90 per cent in Punjab and Haryana.

"Starting from monthly rent of Rs450, these new Airtel 4G plans will encourage more and more customers to enjoy superfast 4G speeds - now delivered at even greater value," a company statement said.

The move is clearly aimed at stealing a march over Mukesh Ambani's nascent Jio Infocomm, which is considered the potential leader in 4G as it has won the maximum number of service areas.

With the Rs 450, Rs 650 and Rs 750 4G plans, the company intends to offer data quota (GBs) at rents similar to 3G plans. The plans starting Rs999 offer accelerated data benefits at rate of Rs100 per GB, the company said in statement.

Customers subscribing to Rs999 and above plans will also be able to enjoy free access to an entertainment library of 1,000 movies and 100 games powered by BigFlix and Indiagames.

However, it is anybody's guess when these much-awaited 4G services will actually be rolled out. Jio Infocomm, already seen as the 4G bellwether, has said it is not possible before March-April 2014.

Bharti Airtel had won spectrum for high-speed broadband service in four telecom services areas of Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka in 2010, paying Rs 3,314.36 crore. Subsequently Airtel bought a 49 per cent stake in Qualcomm's BWA venture for $165 million, aiding the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led group to offer services in eight more circles.

In the same auction, Reliance Jio Infocomm (which was then Infotel Broadband Services) won a 20 Mhz slot for pan-India BWA spectrum for Rs12,847.71 crore.

4G services enable fast access to data services such as stream High Definition (HD) videos, multiple chatting, instantly uploading of photos and downloading rich content among others.