Idea announces 4G launch in southern markets

Bengaluru: The third largest telco by customer base Idea Cellular on Wednesday caught up with its larger rivals to enter the 4G space by announcing services in the five southern states, and also announced content tie-ups with digital companies to help increase the data usage under it.

The company launched services in the fourth generation LTE technology covering 75 towns in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, which encompass four telecom circles.

Idea's rivals like Airtel and Vodafone have already launched 4G services in select circles.

Its managing director Himanshu Kapania said the services will be expanded to select towns in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Goa, Punjab, Haryana, Northeast and Orissa by March.

The announcement is in a series of such launches by telcos ahead of the much-anticipated entry of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio's 4G launch and comes days after its bigger rival Vodafone launched its 4G offering in Kerala. Largest telco Airtel has already launched its offering and has been aggressively marketing it.

RJio will be soft-launching 4G for its employees next week.

The Kumarmangalam Birla-led company is aiming to be able to offer the services in 750 towns across the 10 telecom circles, in which it holds spectrum at present.

Additionally, the recently-announced deal with Videocon on spectrum trading will help it add Gujarat and UP (West) circles as well to the 4G portfolio.

Extending the services in the 12 telecom circles will ensure that 75 percent of the company's current revenue base is covered with the high speed services, Kapania said, while declining to give a timeline for it as regulatory approvals on the spectrum trading deal are still pending.

The company also announced tie-ups with digital content companies like Eros Now, Hungama and Opera for providing movies, music and gaming content, respectively.

The company has given at least three plans for the customers to choose from ranging from Rs 999 to Rs 2,999 a month, with the monthly free data and calling rates being the differentiating factors.

Kapania said 6 million of its over 170 million subscribers currently own a 4G-compatible handsets, 1.8 million of those are in the South where the service was launched today.