Idea Cellular announced its VoLTE launch plans aimed at gaining more share in the 4G space from market leader Reliance Jio and others.

Idea Cellular will make soft launch of VoLTE services in over 30 cities across four telecom circles such as Maharashtra & Goa, Kerala, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh & Telangana in phase 1. Idea Cellular will offer VoLTE in all 20 Idea 4G circles by April 2018. The target of VoLTE service will be its employees during this phase.

Idea Cellular is partnering with smartphone brands to make Idea VoLTE services available on devices.

Idea’s VoLTE services will be available in key cities of Kochi, Trivandrum, Calicut, Pune, Goa, Nashik, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Hyderabad among others, in the first half of the month.

Idea Cellular is using Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) technology to enable mobile users to automatically route to 3G / 2G when they move out of 4G network while on the call.

Some of the 4G smartphones from Huawei, One Plus and Xiaomi will support VoLTE from Idea Cellular.

The company said it would launch VoLTE for its retail customers later – in a phased manner.

Reliance Jio was the first Indian telecom operator to go for a nationwide VoLTE launch from September 2016. Reliance Jio has more than 160 million 4G subscribers out of India’s 200 million plus 4G connections, according to TRAI.