Bharti Airtel may kick start 4G services from Kolkata on March 20

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile phone company by revenues and customers may kick start its fourth generation services from Kolkata on March 20, executives familiar with the development told ET.

This would be the second launch of 4G services in India after Augere Wireless, which has been offering high-speed data through dongles (data cards) since last month.

The Bharti Airtel spokesperson declined to comment, but pointed out that its chief executive Sanjay Kapoor had recently said that the telco would launch 4G services by March-end.

Bharti Airtel had paid Rs 3,314.36 crore for getting fourth generation spectrum in four circles – Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata – in a government auction held in 2010.

ET had earlier reported that Bharti had fininalized vendors for its 4G foray, with ZTE being supplying the equipment and managing operations in Kolkata, while Nokai Siemens gor Maharashta, Huawei for the Karntaka region and Sweden’s Ericsson for Punjab.