Airtel has released 4g in India in a haste. They should have ensured a seamless 4G network, data security, better encryption handling and above all a pilot run.
The current 4G offering from Airtel is another commercial gimmick where they’ve again used or rather abused their big user base(thanks to the connectivity across India).
The Airtel 4G has many flaws.
a. Only 10% of the callers will be able to reach you. For the rest, they will hear a not reachable message. You will have to call the users back thus impacting your monthly call bill
b. You network will never be stable and very often almost 50% of the times you will be off network. Again, Airtel will ultimately gain from it as you will make the calls when no one will be able to call you.
c. Data download speed are not better than 3G but due to network fluctuations, it takes much longer than 3G. A user plan based on usage will have to shell out more.
d. You have to change your SIM card by paying 150 INR which will again benefit only Airtel.
My suggestion to propspective users is to wait till Airtel improves its 4G network. For existing users, please raise your complaints to 121 and change your handset setting back to WCDMA/GSM Auto and manually select a Airtel 3G network.
If you are really pissed off, use Mobile number portability to switch to other service provider.