Airtel plans to phase out 3G in two years
NEWDELHI: Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to phase out its 3G service in two years and upgrade all subscribers using the service to faster 4G networks in a move that will help India’s largest telecom operator save on costs and improve user experience. The company plans to migrate all its users to 4G services, based on the VOLTE communication standard, over the next few months, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The entry of Reliance Jio, with its all 4G network, in September last year has accelerated the end of 3G in India. The ubiquitous availability of cheap 4G-enabled devices has also made it easier for companies to plan a complete shift to a 4G-only network.
“What we need is that every base site that we have, we need to add a new technology so that the rollout that we are doing is almost entirely on 4G. Our 3G rollout is over and I would say 3G in anyway in 2-3 years, we will have to shut it down. Our 3G network will also shift to 4G. And these are mostly software switches,” the person cited above said, requesting anonymity.
The VOLTE standard reduces cost of operations and offers better customer experience, telecom experts said.
An Airtel spokesperson said the company believes “that 3G networks will get phased out in India well ahead of most countries in the world”. “All new smartphones being shipped today support 4G (along with 3G) and given that 4G technology is much more spectrally efficient compared to 3G, the progression to 4G will be logical for operators. We would, however, not like to comment on speculation regarding our network plans.”
Indian operators invested significantly in 3G network and spectrum from 2010 to 2015. Slow uptake of 3G in
India means a lot of that investment has not been fully recovered. Subscribers are concerned about the quality and speed of data connectivity and not the technology.
Globally, some operators such as Verizon and Telenor have considered shutting their 3G networks to simplify their network architectures. However, this has happened in countries where 3G network have been operational for , about 15 years, and the operators have recovered costs.
The fundamental reason to have VOLTE is that when a customer is on a 4G layer and if he keeps dropping from 4G to 3G or to 2G, and going back, the experience is not great.