British-owned cellco Vodafone India will expand its 4G network to 2,400 towns across 17 circles by the end of March 2017, the Economic Times writes. The cellco is set to launch LTE services in Goa, Punjab and Chennai shortly, having added Dehradun, Haridwar, Aligarh, Nainital and nine other prominent business tourism and educational hubs in Uttar Pradesh West and Uttarakhand to its coverage area last week.
In a related development, Idea Cellular is reportedly planning to offer unlimited free mobile data and/or unlimited free incoming international calls to incentivise customers to sign up to a twelve or 18-month 4G plan. The move is in response to mounting pricing pressure from newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), which offers customers free unlimited services until the end of March 2017 and includes free voice services on all of its pre-paid and post-paid plans.