 "Vodafone to give 4G in 4 more circles")
The company has already rolled out 4G in five circles so far — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Karnataka and Kerala. These nine markets will cover 1,000 cities and towns and account for 70 per cent of the company’s data revenues.
Vodafone is terming this SuperNet 4G, as it is a combination of high-speed broadband access and content. The company currently has spectrum in eight circles to offer 4G services and plans to acquire more in the coming auctions. In Gujarat, Haryana and UP East, Vodafone has a block of 5 MHz in the 1,800 MHz band on which it is offering 4G services. Other than Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, none of the other operators currently have a pan-India 4G footprint.
Commenting on the rollout of 4G in four new circles, Sunil Sood, Vodafone India's CEO said: "In the past year significant investments have been made to expand, enhance and upgrade our network, enabling us to provide a better and richer network experience to 198 million customers. We will continue to deploy multiple technologies -- 2G, 3G and 4G - to cater to the myriad connectivity needs of both rural and urban consumers."
The company has invested heavily like some of its rivals in network deployment. In 2015, the company set up 30,000 sites and laid more than 160,000 km of high capacity backhaul fibre. Both measures are directed at ensuring seamless flow of data on network. The company has invested Rs 2160 crore to upgrade networks in Mumbai and over Rs 1000 crore has been invested in Delhi.