Bharti Airtel is launching 4G LTE services for smartphones in Bangalore within the next three weeks, the company announced on Twitter earlier today. However, It is not clear how much Airtel will charge customers for the service. The only issue is that there aren't a lot of devices that support TD-LTE band used by Airtel. For example, Google's flagship device Nexus 5 that went on sale on Google Play does not support this band though it has LTE capability. On the other hand, the version of iPhone 5s being sold in India does support this band, which is also used by RIL's upcoming 4G service. It also needs to be pointed out that Airtel had launched a 4G capable smartphone, Huawei Ascend P1 in India last year, which supports TD-LTE. According to Times of India, Airtel has adopted Circuit Switched Fall Back (CSFB) technology for providing voice calling facility over its 4G LTE networks in the country. With CSFB technology deployed within the network, the telco would be able to offer voice to its LTE subscribers through its 3G and even 2G network. Only Airtel has rolled out 4G service in India till now and has spectrum to launch 4G services in four more circles, and more importantly, in the key cities of Mumbai and Delhi, as well as the states of Haryana and Kerala, after the acquisition of 100% stake in Qualcomm’s broadband wireless entity in India – Wireless Business Services Private Limited. It had launched 4G services only in Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, Panchkula…
