More competition for Reliance Jio as Airtel launches VoLTE services

Airtel has finally launched its Voice over LTE services in India.

Airtel’s VoLTE services go live in Mumbai (REUTERS/Adnan Abidi)

Bharti Airtel on Monday launched its much-awaited Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services in Mumbai. Airtel is the second telecom operator in the country to launch VoLTE services after Reliance Jio.

Airtel VoLTE, which works over 4G, will offer customers HD quality voice calls along with faster call set up time, the company said in a statement.

"This is a significant milestone in Airtel's network transformation journey under Project Leap. Airtel has built a world-class 4G network across India and with the VoLTE-compatible device ecosystem beginning to mature, we believe it's the right time to enable VoLTE calling as part of our service portfolio," said Abhay Savargaonkar, Director - Networks, Bharti Airtel.

"Over the next few months, we will rapidly accelerate the deployment of VoLTE to cover all key geographies to bring HD quality calling to our customers. We keenly look forward to our device partners enabling Airtel VoLTE on their smartphones," he added.

The company statement said Airtel VoLTE will be available on 4G/LTE-enabled mobile devices, which must have an Airtel 4G SIM.

"Customers can call any mobile, landline network using Airtel VoLTE. There will be no additional data charges for VoLTE and calls will be billed as per existing plan or packs benefits," it added.