Airtel reportedly all set to provide VoLTE support to its 4G user base in association with multiple smartphone brands.
As per ‘TeleAnalysis‘, Airtel has started trial runs of VoLTE technology on various smartphones. In fact leading smartphone brand ‘Gionee’ has successfully cleared the trial run and Gionee’s P7 smartphone will be the first to get the taste of VoLTE, which will be then be followed by the other smartphones brands.
VoLTE stands for Voice over Long-Term Evolution, and is used for transmitting voice data over the 4G/LTE network, rather than using 2G/ 3G connections. The USP of VoLTE technology is its HD voice calling quality which is much superior to normal 2G/3G voice calling and far more data can be transferred over 4G than 2G or 3G. VoLTE can connect calls quite fast in comparison to normal 2G and 3G connections. Moreover, battery life also gets increased with VoLTE technology.
As of now, Reliance Jio is the only telecom operator offering free calls over VoLTE (Voice over LTE) technology and claims to have achieved its targeted 100 million user base since its commercial launch which took place on September 5th, 2016. However, it is still a lot less than Airtel’s 260 million users and if Airtel, does come up with VoLTE technology soon, it could fill a vital gap vis a vis Jio.
Meanwhile, Airtel has been pushing hard to retain its user base and recently started a promotional offer for its postpaid customers, named as Airtel surprise. Under this offer, Airtel’s postpaid customers are getting free data, just by logging into the My Airtel App and claiming their free data. Of course, detractors might say that it is too little, too late, especially with key customers already using a JIo sim too, and hooked to the data deals there. So, suddenly its more a problem of plenty for some users at least with 13 GB and more to use each month for the next 3 months.
Recently, Airtel claimed to be the fastest mobile network in India for 2016 based on analysis of millions of internet speed tests done by Broadband testing and network diagnostic application Ookla, duly challenged by Reliance Jio by sending a notice to Ookla, stating,”This exercise by which Ookla purports to provide speed test results to telecom service providers for internal use for a consideration, and, charges a premium in the range of 2X to 4X – depending on the options availed if such entities wish to promote their business using such results, shows that Ookla’s so-called awards/ certificates and brand, is a scam in collusion with a service provider.”
The notice further adds,”The issuing of the so-called ‘”award/ certificate given by Ookla pursuant to an arrangement such as above is an act of cheating and misleading the users of mobile networks for financial and profit which has no legitimacy.”