Reliance Communications has taken down its official 4G home page from its websites a week after it went live.
The page gave various details including tariff plans for three circles. The page also had a graphics that said “4G Network Live in Mumbai”.
At present, trying to access the 4G section results in the user getting thrown back to the home page.
UDPATE – The page is back.
The move has come as the company is trying hard to get its CDMA to 4G migration done as quickly as possible.
According to the original plan, RCom was supposed to shift users to 4G in 12 circles by July 15. Under this plan, RCom had started giving out the tariff plan in each circle as and when it implemented the roaming agreement.
Accordingly, it had uploaded plans for the first three circles — Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai and Maharashtra — on its 4G website on June 30.
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kolkata, Delhi and UP were supposed to have followed this week and next week, Punjab, Odisha and Bihar were supposed to come online. However, the removal of the 4G page seems to indicate some further delays.
Interestingly, some users in these circles have already reported being able to use 4G services using Reliance Communications’ SIM cards.
RCom started selling its LTE sims two months ago, and initial buyers were promised a quick upgrade to the new technology from CDMA.
However, only a section of the CDMA customers have been successfully moved to the new technology yet, with the remaining subscribers still waiting for 4G signals.
These remaining subscribers have been able to use Reliance’s 2G network, and in some circles, its 3G network.
While this may work to some degree for voice customers, it’s create big headaches for data dongle customers. These customers are supposed to move directly to 4G, and are yet to get signals on their newly bought dongles.
It is expected that dongle customers will be able to get their signals only when either RCom manages to get its own 4G network in place on band 5, or when Reliance Jio starts accepting RCom customers on its network under an intra-circle roaming agreement signed by the two companies.
While RCom was expecting Reliance Jio to start accepting its customers starting last week, many RCom customers have not been able to move to Jio yet.
The reason for the delays is not known. Some have suggested problems with voice services as the possible reason. However, dongle users, who do not require voice, too have faced delays.
There are also reports that in some circles, dongle and Wipod users are able to continue to use their old EVDO and CDMA devices. In eight circles, RCom has CDMA spectrum from MTS to fall back on.
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