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Bharti Airtel has sought the Department of Telecom permission to conduct trails for voice services on broadband spectrum allocated to one of its subsidiary. The subsidiary Wireless Business Services is a joint venture with Qualcomm Inc.
“We intend to test voice services on our Long Term Evolution (4G) network being deployed at Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala service areas for which numbering is required,” Wireless Business Services said in a letter to the DoT.
This is the third letter sent by the company seeking 25,000 mobile numbers in each service area for testing of voice service. Airtel holds 51 per cent stake in the company.
Reliance Industries-promoted Reliance Jio Infocomm, which has broadband spectrum in all 22 circles, is also conducting tests for similar service.
The DoT has allocated 10,000 numbers to Reliance Jio Infocomm for testing 4G services in Delhi, Mumbai and Jamnagar. Reliance Jio has been given 4,000 numbers each for Mumbai and Delhi and 2,000 numbers for testing mobile services in Jamnagar.
During the testing period, the companies are not allowed to charge any fee either from consumers or other telecom operators for providing services.
While the Government had initially allocated spectrum in the 2300-MHz band for broadband services, telecom companies have realised that they need to offer voice services also to make it a compelling package.
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