Bharti Airtel offers 4G services on mobiles in Bangalore

BANGALORE: Bangalore will become the first city in India to experience 4G services on mobile from this month. The country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel is launching 4G services for smartphones such as iPhone 5S, 5C and Xolo, from this month.

The launch is a prelude to the 4G war expected later this year when Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Jio Infocomm launches similar services.

"Existing 3G plans will apply to users who will be migrated to 4G for no extra cost. However, they will have to get a SIM card replacement. Voice networks will continue to run on 2G and 3G networks," said Srini Gopalan, Bharti Airtel's director for consumer business.

"4G network users will be able to download 10 standard movies within 30 minutes," he claimed. A trial version of 4G-LTE network that ET experienced in Bangalore was gave download speed of about 7.2 MBPS, versus a 2.2 MBPS in a 3G network.