Airtel, Idea look at moving data traffic to Wi-Fi

In a bid to make way for growing mobile broadband usage in the country, popular mobile service providers like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular are reportedly looking at moving part of their data services to Wi-Fi hotspots, according to a report by The Economic Times. By doing so, telecom companies aim to "free up scarce 2G and 3G airwaves for mobile telephony". The report adds that Bharti Airtel have already gone ahead and set up 1,000 hotspots in three cities across the nation with high levels of data consumption, "apportioning a greater proportion of its licensed spectrum for handling voice traffic", added the report. Bharti Airtel's President for consumer business, K Srinivas, was quoted by the report as saying, "Spectrum is limited, and all over the world carriers have offloaded data on to Wi-Fi, integrating it with existing networks while the back haul can be any medium - copper, fibre or LTE. It's pretty much part of the plan for us as well."

Click here for full story