Idea announces 4G launch in southern markets

The third largest telco by customer base Idea Cellular today 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 per cent 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 also claimed that in the last fortnight since it
started pre-booking for the 4G services, one million customers have signed up for the service.
The company also announced tie-ups with handset makers like Samsung, Lenovo and Lava for the 4G devices, and also with e-commerce major Snapdeal, through which it will be selling the smartphones bundled with promotional plans.
For the first time, 4G devices sales have in October overtook 3G sales in the country, as per IDC data.
Kapania said Idea will be launching its services in the most popular 1,800 MhZ band, adding a bulk of the over 1 billion 4G users in the world use this technology itself.

The network infrastructure is being funded as part of the overall Rs 6,500-crore capex plan for FY16 announced earlier, he said, adding internal accruals are being used to finance it.
The company is also ready to offer the voice-over LTE technology, Kapania said, adding a bulk of the handsets being shipped into the country currently do not have the feature for such calling.
The Idea counter closed little changed at Rs 139.70 on the BSE whose main index rallied more than 1 per cent today.