Bharti Airtel has rolled out its 4G LTE service in Pune, Maharashtra.This follows the company’s 4G rollout in Kolkata in April and in Bangalore in May 2012. In June 2010, Airtel had secured BWA spectrum in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata for a total consideration of Rs. 3314.36 crores during the Broadband Wireless Access spectrum auction. The company has partnered with different vendors for each deployment: Nokia Siemens Networks, Huawei, Ericsson and ZTE to build and operate its TD-LTE (time division duplex long term evolution) network in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata, respectively.
Online purchase: Customers in Pune can check the availability of Airtel 4G services in their area online through a Google Maps interface, and buy services online. Apart from that, Airtel 4G will also be available on monthly EMI’s and cash on delivery. The online payment service will soon be made available in Kolkata and Bangalore as well.
Tariff: The 4G tariff in Pune remains unchanged. Airtel will offer breakfree, breakfree max, breakfree ultra tariff, and breakfree ultimate plans. While Breakfree will offer 6GB data for a monthly rental of Rs 999, breakfree max will offer 9GB data for a monthly rental of Rs 1399 and breakfree ultra will offer 18GB data for a monthly rental of Rs 1999. The breakultimate plan, first introduced in Bangalore, will offer 30GB for a monthly rental of Rs 2999. After the usage of free data, the 4G speeds will throttle down to 128kbps across all plans.
For Postpay customers: Airtel is offering bill discounts to postpaid customers. The customers on Rs 999 plan will receive Rs 167/bill discount for the first six bill cycles, customers on Rs 1399 plan will receive Rs 466/bill discount for the first six bill cycles, customers on Rs 1999 plan will receive Rs 312/bill discount for the first six bill cycles, and customers on Rs 2999 plan will receive Rs 417/bill discount for the first six bill cycles.
Apart from that, Airtel has also introduced smartbytes for postpay customers to extend their 4G data cap after they exhaust their limit. Airtel will offer 3GB, 5GB and 10GB data for Rs 600, Rs 875 and Rs 1500 respectively.
Speed: Airtel claims that the download speeds can reach up to 40 Mbps and upload speeds can reach up to 20 Mbps.
Devices: Currently available Airtel provides Dongles, CPE devices including multi-mode USB dongles (Huawei E392) and a Indoor Wireless gateway (Huawei B593). The indoor CPE with WiFi device is available for Rs. 4999 and the Multi-mode 4G dongle is priced at Rs. 4999.
Airtel Broadband TV: Airtel 4G customers can stream live TV content directly onto their laptop or desktop without the prerequisite of a cable or set-top box connection. The service is currently available for free as a limited period introductory offer. Once the offer expires, the service will will be priced at Rs.150 and Rs 49 for monthly and weekly subscribers respectively.
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