Idea Cellular has expanded its 4G reach to 39 towns in Karnataka; more than a month after it had initially began providing the service in South India. The telecom operator claims it has over 8.6 million subscribers in the state.
To recall, Idea had debuted its 4G services back in December 2015 across 5 circles namely Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The 39 areas which can now access the LTE network in the last region include Bengaluru, Madikeri, Chitradurga, Mysuru, Karwar and Belgavi. These places account for nearly 20% of the state’s population.
Idea plans to further expand to 18 more towns in Karnataka consisting of locales such as Udupi-Manipal, Ballari, Mangaluru and Vijayapura. It’s looking to achieve this goal by the end of the current fiscal year. The brand had earlier announced it was introducing its 4G connectivity to the northern parts of the country.
This expansion had comprised of Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Idea is aiming to spread its LTE services to 183 regions across 7 circles in India by January 31. As for its future goals, the player will kickstart its high-speed platform in the Maharashtra and Goa, Orissa and North East markets by March 2016.
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Reliance Jio is expected to rollout its pan-India 4G network around the same time. So far, the company has made the service available to its employees only. It’s already outed the details of its Lyf series of LTE-ready smartphones online, although there hasn’t been an official announcement for the phones yet.
While Idea has the early-bird advantage for now, Reliance Jio could still pose a serious threat. There’s also other companies such as Airtel and Vodafone to deal with, the latter of which is also planning to expand to more circles by March 2016.