YOU ARE AT:5GBharti Airtel launches unlimited data plans to boost 5G adoption

Bharti Airtel launches unlimited data plans to boost 5G adoption

Bharti Airtel said that its Airtel 5G Plus service is available to customers in over 270 cities in the country

Indian operator Bharti Airtel announced the launch of unlimited 5G data for its customers with the aim of encouraging them migrate to 5G services.

The telco decided to remove the capping on data usage across all existing 5G plans.

All Airtel customers who are under the Airtel 5G Plus network coverage area can use the 5G connectivity for free, according to the operator. However, users have to make sure they are using a 5G-supported smartphone and have enabled Airtel 5G on their smartphone.

Bharti Airtel also noted that its Airtel 5G Plus service is available to customers in over 270 cities in the country.

Shashwat Sharma, director of consumer business at Bharti Airtel said: “This introductory offer is in line with the philosophy of wanting our customers to be able to surf, stream, chat and enjoy multiple benefits at blazing speeds without having to worry about data limits. We hope our customers enjoy the power of world-class Airtel 5G Plus.”

Airtel also said it is working towards offering nationwide coverage and expects to cover every town and key rural area with 5G by the end of March 2024.

Earlier this week, Airtel announced it had reached 10 million 5G subscribers across India, with 1 million 5G subscribers in Mumbai alone. Airtel, which had initially started offering 5G in October 2022, had reached 1 million 5G customers across its entire network in November last year.

The company’s CEO, Gopal Vittal, recently said that Bharti Airtel aims to provide 5G services in 300 cities across the country by March next year.

The executive also said that Airtel would use its 5G services to bolster its high-value postpaid business. To achieve this, Airtel has already identified the top 150 cities that represent 40% of the domestic mobile market.

In October 2022, Bharti Airtel initially aunched 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi.

The carrier is currently using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 5G services. The Indian operator had secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a recent auction carried out by the Indian government.

Last week, Reliance Jio Infocomm announced the launch of 5G services across 34 cities in 10 states, taking the total of towns and cities covered by its 5G network infrastructure to 365.

Jio is offering the 5G connectivity on an invitational basis, with users living in 5G-enabled cities who have 5G compatible smartphones receiving invitations.

The telco had initially announced the launch of the beta trial of its 5G services in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Varanasi in October 2022. Jio is offering 5G through a Standalone (SA) network architecture.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro covers Global Carriers and Global Enterprise IoT. Prior to RCR, Juan Pedro worked for Business News Americas, covering telecoms and IT news in the Latin American markets. He also worked for Telecompaper as their Regional Editor for Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Juan Pedro has also contributed to Latin Trade magazine as the publication's correspondent in Argentina and with political risk consultancy firm Exclusive Analysis, writing reports and providing political and economic information from certain Latin American markets. He has a degree in International Relations and a master in Journalism and is married with two kids.