India’s key telecom operator Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), has completed the process of re-farming of its 3G spectrum to 4G on a majority of its sites in Belgaum, Davangere, Hubli-Dharwad and Mangalore
This exercise is expected to substantially enhance the GIGAnet 4G capacity in these cities. This is part of a bigger plan of the company to migrate its 3G spectrum to 4G across the Karnataka telecom circle.
The reinforcement of its existing 4G infrastructure with 5 MHz of 900 MHZ and 2100 MHz band in these cities, means that VIL customers in Belgaum, Davangere, Hubli-Dharwad and Mangalore, will get to enjoy higher download and upload speeds apart from better indoor coverage.
The existing 4G infrastructure in Belgaum, Davangere, Hubli-Dharwad and Mangalore has been ramped up giving Vi GIGAnet 4G the triple advantages of wider coverage, network quality as well as stronger traffic carriage capacity. The average mobile data traffic capacity has been enhanced by almost 75 percent in these cities.
This upgrade will allow Vi customers to have a better 4G experience using a 4G SIM in a 4G handset. Also, Vi 3G customers can upgrade to a 4G SIM free of cost.
Arvind Nevatia, Cluster Business Head- Karnataka, AP and Telangana, Vodafone Idea said “The latest network augmentation initiative is our endeavour to offer our customers an enhanced 4G experience to complement the growing data demand. Supplementing the existing 4G infrastructure with the expansion on 900 as well as 2100 MHz layers has brought about enhanced data speeds, besides a better indoor network experience for Vi customers in some of the key cities in Karnataka”.
He further added, “We have seen substantial data traffic growth in these cities post the completion of 3G to 4G refarming exercise. Efforts are on to complete this exercise in the rest of Karnataka at an early date”.
Given that the past year has brought about big changes in consumer behaviour with data demand growing manifold, telecom networks have had to mandatorily upgrade to exist in a digital society. This has drawn focus on the criticality of 24×7 high-speed mobile network connectivity across both- commercial as well as residential areas.