Airtel goes for 4G trials in Chennai

BANGALORE: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has launched 4G trials exclusively for its existing customers in Chennai.

As part of this, Airtel customers across the city can now avail a complimentary upgrade to Airtel 4G at 3G prices, a release said.

The company will use this trial phase as an opportunity to gather valuable customer feedback around the quality of its 4G services and assimilate these market insights into Airtel’s wider agenda of building a world-class 4G network infrastructure for the city.

George Mathen, CEO, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Bharti Airtel (India) said, “As more and more Indians show a preference for consuming data and content over their mobile devices, we at Airtel are excited to bring the power of 4G for our customers in Chennai. Over the last few months, we at Airtel have made significant investments in building a robust 4G network here.”

To avail this offer, existing Airtel customers with 4G ready mobile devices can walk into any of Airtel’s retail touch points across Chennai and upgrade to a 4G SIM and experience mobile internet speeds like never before.

Airtel has also announced a go-to-market partnership with Samsung to proliferate 4G devices. As part of this, Samsung India and Airtel have decided to promote each others' 4G offerings at their respective outlets.

As part of this arrangement, Samsung India’s retail stores will now facilitate easy Airtel 4G SIM swap for customers buying 4G smartphones.

In the weeks to come, Samsung will also offer bundled Airtel 4G SIMs alongwith Samsung 4G handsets available in the Indian market.

Airtel 4G double data offers are now available for Samsung’s Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A5 mobile devices. Samsung will also be looking at launching its all new Core Prime 4G mobile smartphone in Airtel 4G markets.

In April 2012, Airtel had launched India’s first 4G service in Kolkata. Airtel’s 4G services are now available across India including Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chandigarh and Amritsar.