Videocon Telecom Chief Executive Officer Arvind Bali today said the mobile service provider will be investing more than Rs 1,200 crore in the next three years to roll out 4G services in Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West and Bihar circles.
Huawei and Nokia Networks will be powering the 4G networks of Videocon Telecom. The telecoms will be rolling out 4G in 6 cities in phase 1, 12 cities in phase 2 and another 11 cities in phase 3 covering the key potential cities.
Incidentally, Videocon Telecom will not be participating in the spectrum auction in March 2015 – indicating that it will not be expanding its presence across the country.
Videocon Telecom said it would prioritize its ISP roll out in these three circles to compliment 4G LTE. For Videocon Telecom, the spectrum acquired in 2014 will not be strong enough to offer seamless LTE experience to consumers because of the limited availability of spectrum, according to industry analysts.
As part of its network strategy, Videocon Telecom, which holds 5Mhz liberalized spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band in the circles, plans to utilize the entire spectrum for rolling out of 4G LTE services in 29 key cities and offer voice on overlay network in these select cities. In remaining coverage area, the telecoms will offer 2G voice on own network.
Videocon Telecom says 4G LTE FDD technology is efficient on 1800 MHz and allows greater speeds and accommodates higher subscriber base to provide better customer experience. Videocon is trying to become the first Indian telecom to offer 4G LTT FDD services on 1800 Mhz in the country with digital voice.
It will be offering bundled 4G devices including Myfi dongles.
The launch of 4G services by Videocon Telecom is happening at a time when several key operators such as Bharti Airtel and Aircel are struggling to add 4G subscriber base. Nokia Networks, a telecom equipment vendor, on Wednesday said that India has around 85,000 4G subscribers. Reliance Jio Infocomm, the pan India BWA licensee to launch 4G on FD-LTE technology, is yet to announce their plans.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
