Telecom service provider Aircel, a subsidiary of Maxis of Malaysia, has conducted 4G LTE trials in Andhra Pradesh.
Aircel, which received BWA (broadband wireless access) license in 8 Indian telecom circles in 2010, does not share additional information about the launch date because the LTE ecosystem is not ready for commercial launch.
Earlier, telecom vendor Huawei had completed 4G trials for Aircel.
Probably, Aircel will become the third telecoms to become serious about 4G plans. Bharti Airtel, which has presence in 20 countries, has launched 4G on TD-LTE technology in 4 cities including Kolkatta, Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), has pan-India license to run 4G using its BWA license. The Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Jio is expected to launch 4G next year.
Airtel, which is considering mobile broadband as focus area for new revenue streams, has already started working on launching 4G in circles acquired from Qualcomm. There were reports that 4G would be launched in Delhi during Diwali.
Bharti Airtel has BWA license spectrum in Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra, Mumbai, Delhi, Haryana and Kerala.
Aircel gave special thrust on 3G in 13 circles, with focus on making 3G affordable to masses by launching Pocket Internet Smart.
To promote data packages, Aircel earlier introduced Apple iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. But it did not bring Apple iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s in the Indian telecom market. Some media reports said the limited stocks of iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s were sold out after these smartphones were launched through Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications.
Though Aircel has started 4G trials in Andhra Pradesh, the company is not confident about its launch plans. Deepinder Tiwana, AP circle business head of Aircel, said the trials are currently on but the company doesn’t have the required ecosystem, including the 4G-enabled mobile handsets, to launch the services commercially.
Lack of strong eco-system has already prompted Bharti Airtel to focus on LTE dongles and not on LTE smartphones.
Aircel’s Tiwana says data services are growing exponentially in Andhra Pradesh. About 44 percent of its 1.85 million subscribers in AP use data services, including 12 percent for 3G. This has enabled Aircel to double its revenues in 2013 compared to the previous year, PTI reported.
Pix source: Aircel.
