Airtel 4G Pune - Plan Details & Tariff

Airtel has announced the availability of 4G services in Pune, the first city in Maharashtra to get LTE capable network after Kolkata and Bangalore. Airtel's been carefully choosing the cities to launch their ultra high speed network and Pune seems to be the most obvious choice (Mumbai may follow soon). Those equipped with 4G LTE capable hardware may quickly subscribe to the plans being offered by Airtel. Others may settle for the third generation of wireless communication for the time being. The company, along with Huawei had recently launched The Huawei Ascend P1 LTE phone which is the first official LTE capable phone available in India.

Airtel's offering following plans in Pune. The tariff starts at Rs. 999 per month for 6 GB of data download. The Break Free max offers 9 GB of data for Rs. 1399, Break free Ultra plan gives you 18 GB for Rs. 1999 and Break free Ultimate will give you 30 GB of data for Rs. 2999. What's very disappointing is the speed that you'll get after your data threshold is reached. Your download speeds will drop to dismal 128 kbps; which is totally unacceptable. We don't want to imagine the feeling you'd have after experiencing the 4G speeds.

But don't be disappointed yet. Airtel promises Smart Bytes that let you extend your data limits. With Smart Bytes, you can get 3 GB for Rs. 600, 5GB for Rs. 875 and 10GB for Rs 1,500. Those who badly want the 4G may buy the 4G capable dongles from Airtel. The indoor CPE Wi-Fi dongle costs Rs. 5000 and you may opt for LTE multi-mode dongle for the same price.
If you wish to enjoy TV on your Airtel 4G, you'll have the option of Airtel Broadband TV as a value added service. The service offers 35 TV channels, 5 on demand video channels and 7 full length movies through the service. Airtel is aiming to increase the number of channels to 76 and the chances are that the list will include your favorite channel. Initially the service is being offered free of cost (trial period) and once the trial is over, subscribers will have to pay Rs. 150 per month or Rs. 49 weekly.
Airtel will also offer 'Games On Demand' service along with the 4G LTE services. The plans for the service will start at Rs. 5/day for 30 games and the top end plan will ask for Rs. 199/month for a collection of 350 mobile games. The movie buffs can opt for on demand movies for Rs. 149/month and will have a choice of over 1250 movies currently present in Airtel's video library.
It's quite interesting to see Airtel moving faster in the game. The company has already established a clear lead by being the first telecom operator in India to offer 4G LTE services. Those who've opted for the service in Bangalore and Kolkata seem to be happy about the quality of service, but not about the pricing (which is very obvious). Expect the pricing to get very competitive as the other players like Idea Cellular, Tata, Reliance jump in the arena. The biggest challenge in adoption of 4G in India is the need of LTE hardware. We expect to see companies like Micromax to make a difference here by launching a budget phone capable of connecting to 4G network.
We expect Airtel to add more cities quickly. We'll of course keep you updated. Stay hooked!