Airtel Launching VoLTE? Well, We Are Not Surprised!
While The War Is In Its Full Steam With Jio Busy Acquiring New Customers And Airtel In Steadily Plugging All The Gaps To Retain Its Supremacy In The Indian Telecom Market, Airtel VoLTE Offering Was One Such Big Gap
There are media reports that Airtel is going to launch its VoLTE services today. Well, we are not sure about this but we are not surprised either. In fact, this was long due from the country’s largest operator. More so, it was a much needed ammunition for India’s first 4G operator, to withstand the wrath of the country’s latest LTE player that snatched away more than 100 million customers from the incumbents, and to put up a brave fight against free calling offers from Reliance Jio.
In March this year we had reported that Airtel is testing its VoLTE services. It was also learnt then that the company was doing some compliance test with various smartphone models and Gionee P7 was one such model that had passed all the tests.
As per sources, Airtel VoLTE is now compatible with smartphones from Motorola, Xioami, Lenovo, Asus, Oppo and Samsung. If Airtel VoLTE services are launched today, you can expect some sort of bundling offer with these smartphones.
Why Airtel Needs VoLTE?
At present Reliance Jio is the only operator in the country that offers VoLTE or voice over LTE networks. Because VoLTE is offered on the data network and calls are made over IP, operators incur very less cost providing the service. Primarily that was the reason why Reliance Jio is offering voice calls free to its subscribers. And this ‘free’ stuff is snatching away customers from incumbent operators including Airtel.
This VoLTE offering will give Airtel a shot in its arm to take on Jio. Airtel, in fact, could start offering voice services completely free just like its rival. Also, it would help the operator in retaining its customers.
Lack of VoLTE capability was one big flaw in Airtel’s offerings, and while both Jio and Airtel are offering 4G services, the former could able to lure more customers by offering free voice calls to its customers. Besides, quality of voice calls over IP on LTE network is better than non-IP calls or the conventional calls that we use on a regular basis.
In November last year Airtel had contracted Nokia in a Rs 402 crore deal to deploy VoLTE infrastructure for its pan India network and the company has been working in this regard since the launch of Jio that offered VoLTE facility to its customers.
While Airtel boasts of its robust 4G network and claims to have the ‘smart’ as well as ‘fastest’ network in the country, Jio boasts of its all-IP network and dirt cheap offerings on data, and free voice service. With the launch of VoLTE, Airtel too would be in a position to free voice calling services to its customers too.
