Vodafone India to launch 4G in 8 more circles

Vodafone India has revealed plans to roll out 4G services in eight additional telecoms circles by March 2017, giving it a 4G presence in 17 of India’s 22 service areas.

The operator aims to deploy 4G in 2,400 additional towns over the next four months, in the circles of of Maharashtra and Goa, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh West, Assam and North East.

Vodafone’s SuperNet 4G service already covers nine circles – Mumbai, Delhi and NCR, Kolkata, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh East and West Bengal.

Vodafone was the biggest winner of India’s recent $9.8 billion spectrum auction, securing 2x 82.6MHz of FDD and 200MHz of TDD spectrum across the 1800-MHz, 2100-MHz and 2500-MHz bands. The auction gave the company 4G capability in 17 of India’s 22 telecoms circles.

Now the company plans to leverage this spectrum to expand its 4G network. This will allow Vodafone to better compete against disruptive new pan-India 4G operator Reliance Jio Infocomm, which has been shaking up the market with its mobile data focused approach. Jio’s unlimited voice and SMS plans threaten to further cut into existing Indian mobile operators’ low margins.