Bharti Airtel, India’s largest Telecom Company has come a long way from being a 2G Voice operator in Delhi circle by acquiring license exactly 20 years ago to launching of 4G LTE Broadband Data Services in Kolkata a week ago.
For curiosity, I happened to compare the 4G LTE Pricing of Top 4G LTE Operators Globally and Airtel is the Cheapest when it is compared on Price / MB Scale, even though it pinches our pocket in INR Terms and not to forget the $160 Dongle 🙁
The following Chart Shows the Comparison of Pricing of 4G LTE Broadband Services for various Data Usage Plans Globally.
In the US, AT&T and Verizon do not charge a premium for LTE data service over HSPA data service. In Singapore, SingTel offers an LTE bundle that includes 10 GB of LTE data and 50 GB of HSPA data (for S$69.90). LTE pricing shown is for the LTE bundle and not for standalone LTE service. In Canada, Rogers is currently offering a price promotion for LTE data: C$50/month for up to 10 GB of data. Telsta offers the same price plans for LTE and HSPA data. Telstra offers AU$20 bundling discounts for customers taking two services. Prices used are for standalone plans.
4G LTE is Indeed a Substitute for Wired Broadband in India – Airtel may not accept this, but their Plan details suggest that with Rs 1448 one can get upto 19GB of Data on Super fast Airtel 4G LTE network i.e 1 GB More than what is offered in Airtel 4G BreakFree Plan of Rs 1999.
Finally, some have written about how Airtel is at a disadvantage to Reliance Infotel Broadband on 4G LTE Pan-India Broadband Rights. However, data suggests Reliance [Communications or Retail] is yet to prove itself in any consumer business and can’t match Airtel’s Telecom Model across verticals – Consumers or Business, it has been a winner.