India's Bharti Airtel has launched a new VDSL vectoring service the company has branded V-Fiber, capable of delivering speeds of up to 100Mbps.
The company's new service has been launched in Chennai, and is being rolled out across Airtel's national broadband network - which spans 87 cities.
Airtel will offer the service to its existing customers at no additional cost, except for the cost of an upgraded modem. For new subscribers, Airtel will offer an unlimited three month trial offer.
The operator will now also offer all its fixed broadband subscribers unlimited voice calling at no extra cost, and is providing a rewards program to allow broadband customers to get 5GB of additional mobile data per month if they are also subscribed to Airtel's mobile services.
As part of Project Leap, Airtel's nationwide network transformation initiative, the company is meanwhile augmenting its 550,000km of domestic and international fiber capacity to improve latency and customer service and meet growing demand for data services.
“India is witnessing an explosive growth in data usage and a lot of in-home data consumption is happening over fixed broadband that offers consistent speeds. Airtel has always innovated ahead of the curve and offered its customers best-in-class broadband technology and experience,” Airtel director of operations Ajai Puri said.
“With ‘V-Fiber’ and our national optic fiber backbone, we are all set to offer a future ready network for tomorrow’s digitally connected homes. This solution, besides reducing our carbon footprint, offers a very quick and convenient upgrade to the customer.”
Airtel is bracing for the anticipated impact of the planned entry into the fixed broadband market of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the disruptive pan-Indian 4G service provider with an extensive existing fiber footprint.