Reliance Communications has started activating the connections of CDMA subscribers in its remaining circles — Kerala, Kartantaka, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, marking the end of its protracted migration process.
RCom first started the migration process for its CDMA subscribers in late April and had set a target of completing the process by the first half of this month.
Subscribers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala were among the ones who started receiving signals on their new 4G SIM cards starting today.
It was not immediately clear if they could also log on to Reliance’s 4G network.
Customers in other circles, such as Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi, faced a two-step migration process in which the first stage involved their getting shifted to Reliance’s GSM network, and the second stage comprised the activation of 4G services on these connections.
However, in the last four states, the move is likely to be a single-step process, as RCom’s 4G is up and running already. In these four states, it was able to manage the migration process better due to the availability of MTS’ back-up spectrum.
In these places, RCom first moved its CDMA subscribers to MTS’ network, started work on getting its 4G service in place, put it up, and then migrated CDMA subscribers to the new network.
To prevent CDMA subscribers from continuing to use MTS’ network, RCom has blocked their outgoing, with a message urging them to call customer care.
Once subscribers call customer care, their 2G/4G connections are activated.
However, this move has been cause for some confusion in the market, as many people were not sure why their CDMA connection has suddenly died.