Idea to launch 4G in 10 circles by June

India’s third-largest mobile phone operator, Idea Cellular, on Tuesday said it was setting up infrastructure to launch fourth-generation (4G) services in 10 circles by June and said it would soon catch up with operators which had launched the service.

“I want to tell our investors that we are aware of market movements. We may be six months behind who chose to start earlier, but we will be catching up and are deploying 4G infrastructure as fast as we can,” chief executive officer Himanshu Kapania said during an analyst conference call on Tuesday.

The company, whose stock was downgraded on Tuesday by Citi to ‘sell’ citing its vulnerability with the launch of major 4G player Reliance Jio, on Tuesday talked about detailed plans to launch 4G within the first six months of 2016.

“We will provide competitive 4G services to our consumers. We will provide a better choice to the consumers,” he added saying the company has already earmarked Rs 6,500 crore to roll out 2G, 3G and 4G sites.

To offer its 4G customers a range of services, it will launch Idea games, Idea music, Idea movies and more regional and localised content. It has also tied up with lots of start-ups for providing location-based applications and other services exclusively to its 4G users.

Several analysts tracking telecom industry have concerns about Idea rolling out 4G services citing it does not have better quality spectrum to offer the high speed mobile internet services.

Experts have contested the Idea’s plan to offer 4G primarily in 1800 MHz band, while globally and in India major operators will provide 4G on 2100 Mhz band.

The company rejected these concerns saying it can provide high quality mobile broadband on its existing portfolio of spectrum which includes 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz and 2100 Mhz.

“Globally 40 percent of 4G networks are used on 1800 Mhz band. So we will be using 1800 Mhz as well as 2100 Mhz based on availability of spectrum in circles,” the top official of the telecom operator said.

The flagship company from Aditya Birla group today said it will complete the launch of 4G services in 10 circles by June 2016. Idea has 1800 Mhz band in these circles, which are Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, north east states, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

Most telecom operators prefer to have 1800 Mhz band as it is easier for them to target both 2G and 4G users simultaneously. Idea said it will continue to expand its coverage in both 2G and 3G networks as large numbers of consumers still prefer the mobile to use voice communications.

“In rural areas, the population is not ready for mobile broadband ,” he said.