Telenor India ready to start 4G services across six circles by end of fiscal

Telecom operator Telenor India, which claims to be the most affordable network, is lining up  4G services across six circles by the end of this fiscal.

''As we speak, we have already swapped 7,000 mobile sites. They are LTE ready. Based on this transformation we have started offering LTE in Varanasi. We expect entire network will be upgraded by end of this financial year,'' Telenor India chief executive officer Sharad Mehrotra told PTI.

The company had awarded Rs1,240 crore contract to Chinese telecom equipment firm Huawei for modernising all its 25,000 mobile base stations in six telecom circles where it operates.

Telenor offers mobile services in UP (West), UP (East), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), Maharashtra and Gujarat, which between them, account for over 50 per cent of India's population.

The company had a permit for Assam but was yet to start its services.

According to Mehrotra, 30 per cent of Telenor customers used data while the rest were using voice.

''No doubt future is of high speed but at same time first time data users that are trying to experiment with internet on network like Telenor. We have our own target segment. As customer evolves they expect higher service. In future we have to have high speed data play. We are looking at spectrum auction very closely,'' Mehrotra said.

Meanwhile, Telenor confirmed to MediaNama that it was looking to launch 4G services across six circles it operates in.

Telenor had started offering 4G services in Varanasi in March 2016, which was provided over a narrow band. According to the company, it would extend the service to Andhra Pardesh and Telangana.

The company reported that its active internet subscriber base stood at 26.3 per cent of its connections for the quarter ended 31 December 2015. It reported a total connection base of 42.6 million for the quarter, translating to an internet subscriber base on 11.07 million.