Idea Cellular to roll out 4G in 750 towns

Idea Cellular proposes to roll out 4G LTE network in 750 towns under 10 circles by June this year, according to top company officials.

“We will make it to 10 circles as early as by March but the target of 750 towns will be reached by June,” Rajat Mukarji, chief corporate affairs officer, Idea Cellular, told Business Line here.

Mukarji, accompanied by Shashi Shankar, chief marketing officer, were here in connection with the expansion of 4G services in Kerala.

“We’re bang on target with our plans,” Mukarji said.

Idea had announced the launch of 4G services in the southern States last December. The operator is ‘transplanting’ existing 2G and 3G towers with 4G equipment.

As of now, it is providing 3G in the 2100 Mhz spectrum. In the last auction, 1800 MHz spectrum was regularised. So it is able to offer 4G on 1800 MHz spectrum in all the four southern circles.

On the state of readiness of rural India for mobile broadband, Shashi Shankar said there were two-three things that need to fall in place. One is the reach of the network.

“3G has been there for the last five years and we have rolled out 3G in all the main cities. Now we’re focusing on smaller towns,” Shankar said.

The second factor is the device. The device prices for 3G have now come down to ₹4,000.

It is a question of network reach and affordability of the device. When devices are available at affordable prices, more people will get connected.

Use of broadband will be for varied purposes. Messaging as a platform has taken off in a big away but there will be lot more of uses of broadband rather than only one-to-one communication.

Shankar said Idea Cellular has tied up with Hungama for content and built up a library of 30,000 Malayalam songs. It is talking to Eros and readying a 500- to 700-strong Malayalam movie library.

“We’ve 4G in all southern States, which have four different languages. So varied content is needed,” he added.