The mobile telephony market is set to sizzle with competition, with Vodafone India, the country's second largest mobile operator by revenue and subscriber base, also joining the race for launch of 4G services by the end of the current calendar year. Rival Bharti Airtel launched such services across 300 cities earlier this month and Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm plans to do so in December. Idea Cellular has already said it will launch 4G services in the next calendar year. On Friday, Vodafone India said it will launch 4G services by the end of calendar year 2015 in important data markets, including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Kochi. “In addition, Vodafone India will also roll out its 3G networks in seven circles - Assam, North East, UP West, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Odisha, to expand its overall 3G footprint to 16 circles across the country,” a company statement said. It said the company had acquired additional 4G (LTE) spectrum in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kerala and Karnataka circles in the February 2014 auctions, and they together contribute close to 50% of total data revenue for it. With big operators getting into the 4G space, which enables surfing the web on mobile phones, tablets and laptops much faster than 3G services, consumers can once again expect to get the best in terms of tariff, data packages, movies and song downloads coupled with snazzy devices, as the operators jostle for a share of their wallet. For a sneak preview of what the consumers could get: Airtel, has a tariff plan – Infinity Plans – where at Rs 999 the company is offering unlimited local voice calls on Airtel-to-Airtel network along with 3GB data benefits and access to Wynk Movies and Wynk Music. This gets scaled up to Rs 1,999, wherein 7GB of data comes with unlimited local, STD calls, and free roaming services with unlimited Wynk songs and movies. With inputs from Financial Express
