Even as Indian mobile subscribers still continue to wait for entry of 3G services in the country, the regulator TRAI feels that the it may now be relevant to actually consider 4G services instead. The regulator is now set to float a consultation paper on 4G technology globally identified with LTE.

"Yes. We are starting the process and would come out with a consultation paper to look into various issues relating to 4G telecom services," TRAI Chairman J S Sarma told news agency PTI.

The report however says that by discussing 4G, the country is no way thinking of bypassing 3G.

"3G has been delayed badly ... I don't want 4G or LTE (Long Term Evolution) to meet the same fate. Other countries are catching up with the 4G and that is why we are taking advance action," said Sarma to PTI.

A section of the industry however feels that the move to talk of 4G is an attempt by a lobby to further delay the 3G process. Nowhere in the world any operator has bypassed 3G before adopting 4G. The conventional way observed is to gradually migrate from HSPA to HSPA+ and then to LTE.

The WiMAX lobby too considers itself to be part of 4G. In fact proponents of WiMAX technology say that it is 4G-ready technology which is readily available today.