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Airtel 4G service is now available in all 22 telecom circles of the country Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecommunications services provider, announced the launch of its 4G services in Jammu & Kashmir, completing a national rollout. With the latest launch,   Airtel 4G   service is now available in all 22 telecom circles of the country. Raveendra Desai, COO — J&K, Bharti Airtel said, "We are pleased to launch our 4G services in Jammu & Kashmir and look forward to delighting customers with best-in-class services on India's best smartphone network." "We invite customers to avail the exciting data offers and get on to the digital superhighway. We remain committed to the government's digital vision for the state and will continue to invest in expanding our services," he said. The company plans to expand its 4G footprint to over 100 towns across J&K, he said adding that Airtel 4G has been rolled out in the state using FD LTE ...

Old telcos have sweetened their offerings considerably to take on the Reliance Jio challenge Reliance Jio   made a big announcement on Tuesday following which the road ahead doesn't look smooth for rivals Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, among others. Although the free services provided since its launch, including 1GB data at 4G speeds every day, unlimited voice calls and unlimited text messages will be over after 31 March, the operator has introduced a new plan called Jio Prime which will allow users to avail the facilities for another year at a nominal price. Here are the key points: Membership:   Jio Prime membership is limited to the 100 million existing Reliance Jio users as well as those who join the network before March 31, 2017. Cost:   All Jio members can enroll prime membership for a one time fee of Rs 99 (which is valid for one year). Additionally, to get the free mobile data and other benefits, users will need to pay another Rs. 303 per month for th...

Airtel unveils fresh packs to counter Jio heat Days after Reliance Jio extended its free services, mobile operator Bharti   Airtel   today came out with two prepaid offerings, including a Rs 145 pack, that will offer free unlimited local/STD calls along with 4G data. While Airtel's Rs 145 pack offers 300 MB 4G data along with free unlimited Airtel-to-Airtel local/STD calls, its Rs 345 pack offers unlimited free local/STD calls to any network in India and 1GB 4G data. Both packs have a validity of 28 days and are available for customers across the country. Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio -- which garnered 52 million customer base in the first three months of 4G launch -- recently announced extension of free domestic voice calls and data till March 31, 2017. Even after March, the company would offer free calls for life to its 4G customers. Industry watchers are of the view that extension of free services by Reliance Jio will add to the woes of the industry which is al...

RJio is choking our networks: telcos The war that had so far been brewing silently between incumbent telecom operators and  Reliance Jio   has come out in the open. Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) fired a salvo at Jio on Monday by writing to Telecom Secretary J S Deepak alleging that Jio was masquerading full-blown services in the guise of a trial, which they said amounted to predatory pricing. The COAI's letter was a response to one sent by Jio to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) claiming that incumbents were not providing enough interconnect bandwidth. In response, the incumbents have alleged that the burgeoning voice traffic emanating from  RJio   is choking their networks, given that 1.5 million subscribers of Jio are calling people who are on the networks of other leading telcos. When a subscriber of one network makes a call to a subscriber of another network, the point at which the two networks connect are known ...

IPL viewership on Hotstar doubles in 2016   STAR India’s online video streaming platform Hotstar has more than double its reach (unique viewers) for IPL in the past one year. For all the games played until the play-offs (between April 9 and May 22), 80 million people used the service, compared with 35 million a year ago. The cash-rich   Twenty20   tournament came under STAR India’s digital ambit in 2014 when it was made available on   starsports.com . Last year, Hotstar was introduced, helping viewers see the tournament on the new app. The network seems to be on track to achieve the target of reaching100 million IPL viewers this year. “We have seen the adoption of Hotstar as primary screen increase significantly among the urban affluent youth. At 80 million (unique) viewers before the play-offs, I expect the platform to add another 15 to 20 million in reach over the last leg of the tournament,” says Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar, STAR India. Total IPL watch t...

Sasha Chettri,   Airtel 4G   girl, is the ad world’s newest poster girl. Chettri has gone viral on social media, ever since Airtel kicked off its 4G campaign last July, and, in the process, has delivered for brand Airtel what no other campaign has - high recall value. With her unconventional and provocative approach, 21-year-old Chettri has firmly put brand Airtel on the country’s 4G landscape. Today, 4G in India means Airtel just the way years ago Coca-Cola staked claim on the entire soft drinks category through its Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola campaign with Aamir Khan. Given that the next generation of mobile broadband, or 4G, is about speed, the television commercial showing two girls racing their phones on a terrace in Lucknow was an unusual way to break the clutter on television. Given that other telcos have not come up with such high-decibel campaigns, Chettri has become a shorthand for 4G as a category. In advertising parlance, the success of a campaign is measur...