Airtel discontinues 3G services in Gujarat, Upgrades 3G customers to 4G

Gandhinagar: In line with its plan to phase out 3G technology, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) today announced that it has discontinued 3G services in Gujarat.

Starting today, Airtel mobile broadband services in Gujarat shall be available on high speed 4G network and Airtel 3G customers have been upgraded to 4G.

Airtel will continue to provide 2G services in Gujarat to serve the connectivity needs of customers on feature phones.

All customers on 3G were duly notified and requested to upgrade their handsets/SIMs to continue enjoying best-in-class smartphone experience. 3G customers who are yet to upgrade their handsets/SIMs will continue to get access to voice services.

The company in its statement said, in Gujarat, Airtel has re-farmed 2100 Mhz band, that was being used for 3G. The company has now deployed L2100 technology to complement its existing 4G services.Re-farming of 3G spectrum for 4G will improve coverage inside buildings – homes, offices and malls & outdoors especially during intracity/ intercity transit for 4G smartphone customers.

Navneet Sharma, COO- Gujarat, Bharti Airtel said: “The smartphone eco system in India is currently going through a phase where adoption of 4G only devices are overwhelming.”

In Gujarat, Airtel uses a solid spectrum bank across 2300 Mhz (TD LTE), 2100 Mhz (LTE 2100), and 1800 Mhz (FD LTE) to offer 4G services to customers.