Bharti Airtel has launched high-speed services along with free voice facility in India recently. With its Fourth generation services, people can now enjoy uninterrupted high definition video streaming, faster uploads and downloads.
The company will see tough competition with the entry the Reliance Jio scheduled to launch later this year. The challenge has provoked the company to launch schemes at Rs 25 with plans starting for Rs 999 a month, along with unlimited voice calls and downloads for some music options with some of the higher end packages such as Rs 1,999 plan.
Free voice offering with some of the schemes is a first in India and comes amid buzz of Reliance Jio adopting a similar strategy. While 51 cities and towns are on the 4G map, the services will be expanded to 296 towns in a couple of weeks. “We will offer 4G services at 3G prices... We are children of competition in a way and we work in brutal marketplace and that makes us better and sharper,” said Gopal Vittal, Bharti Airtel MD & CEO for India and South Asia.
Airtel also announced special deals with handset manufacturer Samsung and online marketplace Flipkart in what is seen as a preparation to deal with Mukesh Ambani's return to telecom. Vittal said Airtel was in talks with different handset makers for the past one year to shape the device ecosystem for 4G and a fall in handset prices have worked in its benefit.
