Bharti Airtel to launch VoLTE service today?

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, India's leading telecom operator is expected to launch voice over LTE (VoLTE) service in India today. The telco has scheduled an event later today in Delhi, and has sent media invites for the same.

A few handsets have already started receiving Airtel carrier update with support for VoLTE technology. Apple India support page also lists support for Airtel VoLTE in India for iPhone 6 and above.

ET earlier reported that Bharti Airtel was conducting commercial trials in metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi.

VoLTE allows an operator to offer both voice and data without switching between bands, with voice being just another application that rides on an LTE data network. Incumbents currently offers calling on the legacy circuit-switch technology.

Currently, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio is the only operator to offer VoLTE service in India.

Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson recently said India's VoLTE user base will reach 370 million by 2022, while the global base is set to reach 4.6 billion during the same period.