Airtel shut down 3G networks across India by March 2020
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Airtel shut down 3G networks across India by March 2020:
Airtel will shut down 6-7 circles by September, 2019 and the entire pan-India network by March, 2020
Bharti Airtel will shut down its entire 3G network across India’s 22 telecom circles by March, marking the beginning of the end of the technology, while focusing on providing 4G services to subscribers, a top company official said. It will, however, continue to provide 2G services for feature phone users.
The process began last month when the telecom giant shut down 3G network in the Kolkata circle. “This has worked very well in Kolkata. Now we will do this process across India. By September, we will shut down 6-7 circles and by March the entire 3G network pan India will shut down," Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said in a post-earnings call with analysts on Friday.
Airtel’s decision marks the beginning of the phase out of 3G services in India, which is now increasingly moving to 4G, triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio in September 2016 which provides only 4G services. Rival Vodafone Idea continues to provide 2G, 3G, and 4G services.
In Kolkata, Airtel has re-farmed the 900 MHz band spectrum being used for 3G to strengthen its 4G network. The telecom operator is deploying L900 technology in the 900 MHz band to complement its 4G services in the 2300 MHz and 1800 MHz bands.
This, Airtel expects, will improve 4G availability inside buildings and coverage across homes in Kolkata.
However, the company does not expect much in cost savings by shutting down 3G services as it would continue to use the same equipment to offer 4G services to users.
“Our capex will continue for deployment of new sites and some loading on 2300 MHz band," Vittal said.
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Ya, They Have Already Started With Kolkata.
And Users Will Be Duly Notified Before The Closure Of 3G Services..And Its A Great Move Indeed. They Should Invest Those Spectrum In Improving 4G Services.
they shut down in Guwahati even before Kolkata.
4G bhi Shut down kar dena chahiye. 4G chalu karte hi signal 1/5 or 0/5 ho jata hai call aana band ho jata hai, ussd code vi dial nahi hota agar network selection automatic na ho toh. Nahi chahiye sab band kardo. #chortel
That’s the problem. They don’t want to invest in infrastructure to improve 4G but they want to shutdown 3G to reduce the operating cost.
First improve 4G network then shutdown 3G and even 2G.
If they think 3G shutdown will improve 4G then they should do it immediately 
@abhishek012
I am currently using airtel as secondary sim on 3g mode.
Any suggestions for porting to other 3g network..
My first choice is BSNL.
Network is good. Widespread.
I get better data speed on BSNL 3G than on Jio 4G, most of the times. But I don’t use data.
Also, keeping the sim active is cheaper in BSNL.
Good choice for a secondary sim, I guess.
if BSNL really had unlimited money, their employees would not be having problem every month in getting salary.
but yes, if bsnl shuts down, the first group to be hit would be the MPs who get 15k per month as telephone allowance. so they are expected to agitate. but with the ruling party having 300+ majority, they can push through anything.
Waiting chortel to shutdown completely
nice move