Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam Get Airtel 4G Trials at 3G Prices

After many promises and the infamous network problems while setting up, Airtel has finally started its 4G LTE trials in Hyderabad in Telangana and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Customers with compatible smartphones can now avail 4G LTE speeds in these two cities by getting their free 4G SIM at Airtel offices around the city. The process is pretty simple and hardly takes 5 minutes, and you should be able to access the network in no time. This announcement comes hot on the heels of the previous one that 4G trials would begin in Chennai on the 14th of May, with Hyderabad and Mumbai soon to follow.

Must Read: Top 5 4G LTE Smartphones in India Under 10,000 INR

Airtel 4G in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam

Airtel’s 4G is available in 19 cities in India including Kolkata, Pune, Bengaluru and Chandigarh, and has been getting pretty good reviews. Speeds range from 5-7 Mbps for downloads and 2-3 Mbps for uploads on an average, which is actually quite good. However, because of spectrum bidding, Airtel doesn’t have access to the same frequencies everywhere, so what works in one state might not work in another. While Chennai and Hyderabad get 4G LTE on the FDD-LTE (1800 MHz) band, Mumbai will get it on the TDD-LTE (2300 MHz). You can read more about the differences between FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE here.

Basically, most smartphone chipsets are meant to either connect to FDD-LTE networks, or TDD-LTE networks, there are only a few phones that come with chipsets that can connect to both, such as iPhones. If you have a smartphone bought from outside India, chances are you can connect to the FDD-LTE networks, but not TDD-LTE networks, since they probably run on a chipset that isn’t global LTE compatible. So if you’re good to go on the compatibility front then you should seriously consider switching, because there’s basically no extra costs. 4G plans are equivalent to 3G, here’s the details:

Once you’ve crossed the limit, data costs will be 50P/MB.

Airtel has also tied up with Flipkart and Samsung for the service, and will offer double the data for the same cost if you purchase select smartphones, like the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy A7, Galaxy A5, and the Galaxy Core Prime 4G. Now that 4G LTE compatible devices are available under 10,000 INR, we think it’s a great time to switch!