4G is at its peak at the moment with all Indian operators offering it in some form or the other. Airtel, Vodafone and Jio are offering full-fledged services whereas BSNL is currently in the testing phase with its 4G services. As the world is readying for 5G, all telecom operators are now trying their best to win over customers with exciting plans and prices. Airtel has been among the best 4G operators in the country and now it's trying to improve its services with an unprecedented move.

Airtel is probably the first telecom operator in the world to phase out the 3G technology globally. The company has initiated this move by phasing out 3G services in Kolkata. The 900MHz spectrum that was used for offering services to 3G customers will now be used to enhance the services in 4G. Therefore, 4G subscribers could now get better services in the city.

This is in line with our stated strategy of focusing on serving quality customers with the best-in-class service experience. Going forward, we plan to re-farm all of our 3G spectrum across India and deploy it for 4G in a phased manner. Also, it complements the smartphone ecosystem, which has now gravitated overwhelmingly towards 4G only devices," said Randeep Sekhon, CTO - Bharti Airtel.

With the 900MHz now allocated for 4G services, Airtel subscribers in Kolkata should be able to see an improvement in 4G availability inside buildings -- homes, offices and malls. It will also result in a wider availability of Airtel 4G and better network experience in 4G services.

Despite phasing out 3G in Kolkata, Airtel will still retain in 2G network in the city. The 2G services will be retained for those who rely on feature phones.

While Kolkata is the first city to bid goodbye to the 3G network for Airtel, this strategy will be deployed for other circles as well. Airtel will be slowly phasing out the 3G network and use its 900MHz spectrum to improve 4G services in urban areas where there's a lot of network congestion.



With Airtel starting to phase out 3G, it will join the likes of Jio that solely relies on 4G LTE network. Airtel is still keeping its 2G network intact but Jio has been offering 4G LTE services for many years now.