The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

    Vodafone to launch 4G in 4 circles, expand fast mobile broadband coverage to nine markets: CEO Sunil Sood

    Synopsis

    At present the country’s second-largest mobile carrier operates 4G services in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Karnataka and Kerala on the 1800 Mhz band.

    ET Bureau
    MUMBAI: Vodafone India will shortly launch 4G in Gujarat, Haryana, UP-East and West Bengal, and in turn, expand its fast mobile broadband services coverage to nine markets, covering 70 per cent of the company’s data revenue, Chief Executive Sunil Sood said Wednesday.

    "Vodafone India will have 4G in 100 towns by the year end," Sood said.

    Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value Skill Courses

    Offering CollegeCourseWebsite
    MITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisit
    Indian School of BusinessISB Product ManagementVisit
    Indian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Product ManagementVisit
    At present the country’s second-largest mobile carrier operates 4G services in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Karnataka and Kerala on the 1800 Mhz band.

    Sood gave assurances that the quality of Vodafone India’s 4G coverage in the four new circles would be maintained with existing spectrum. He, however, declined comment on whether the company is using "narrow band 4G", which uses less than 5 MHz of spectrum.

    The Vodafone India’s mobile network, he added, "is now 5G ready, and needs merely a software update to launch fifth-generation services when needed".

    According to industry experts, a 5G network is expected to be able to handle 10,000 times more call and data traffic than current 3G or 4G networks. Data download speeds on 5G networks are likely to be anything from 10 to 100 times faster than 4G, they say.

    But as a mobile broadband technology, 5G is still some years away, and the first 5G phones are slated to arrive by 2020, according to international news reports. South Korea isn’t likely to see any 5G trials until 2017 and Verizon and AT&T are also reportedly expected to roll out 5G networks in 2018 in the US.

    On the striking down of the telecom regulator’s call drop compensation order by the Supreme Court, Sood said "he respected the apex court judgement".
    The Economic Times

    Stories you might be interested in