just like 3g took years to gain traction in western markets but concedes airtels fledgling 4g operation wont gain momentum unless it launches lte in mumbai and delhi where it acquired qualcomms wireless broadband permits earlier this year right now it offers 4g services only in bangalore kolkata and pune mumbai and delhi are the two largest data markets and our network teams are working furiously to roll out 4g in both cities at the earliest says srinivas declining to reveal potential launch timelines the company along with chinas huawei is also conducting trials of the huaweiascend p1 lte smartphone the first tdltecompatible 4g handset in india however it is yet to take a call on its pricing apple refused to comment on the feature i dont expect 4g to see any meaningful traction unless airtel launches the service in highvalue markets like mumbai and delhi and more important till relianceowned infotel broadband launches says consultancy ovums principal telecoms analyst emerging markets shiv putcha infotel broadband is the only firm with a panindia broadband wireless access permit which allows it to offer highspeed data services on mobile devices small wonder most analysts believe the new telecom policy 2012 aka ntp 2012 paves the way for infotel to eventually offer voice services read voip over data networks which they claim can be a proverbial gamechanger for lte adoption infotel broadband could disrupt established telecom businesses if it can offer cheap voip and data services over converged smart devices says putcha adding that voice could well be the sweetner in an lte scenario since there are no successful cases of dataonly telecom businesses worldwide analysts at forrester agree reliances 4g service could be a potential gamechanger but say voip wont play a huge part infotel can transform indias lte space but not due to voip apart from some advances by south korea voip over 4g is still at a nascent stage globally and call quality remains poor says katyayan gupta analyst connectivity lead asiapacific japan at forrester gupta believes reliances comparative 4g edge lies in the ability to build better economies of scale by offering a panindia service attracting more customers by offering nationwide 4g roaming since ntp 2012 has abolished roaming and even subsidising 4g devices like cpes and dongles by leveraging scale industry experts aware of developments claim reliance has approached the telecom department to conduct voip trials on its tddlte network in the run up to launching 4g services in mumbai and delhi but reliance did not reply to ets specific queries the company is also tightlipped on the launch of its 4g services originally expected in june former vsnl chairman bk syngal who is now senior principal at dua consulting says reliancecontrolled infotel broadband may not be able to immediately offer voip services on a 4g data network reliance only has an isp licence which allowed it to acquire bwa airwaves to provide data services nationally he also believes it is early days for