Bharti Airtel is set to give a tough fight to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for 4 G services in Punjab. The company announced, on Monday, that it would invest Rs 4,000 crore over next five years for 4G services in Punjab. It is a leading player in GSM mobile services in Punjab.

RIL, a new entrant in 4G services, is likely to launch its 4G services in Punjab by March, 2014. RIL has spectrum and licence for pan India 4G services.

Airtel will also lay an additional 10,000 km of optic fiber and expand its 4G LTE services to all towns and villages across the state.

For this Airtel has signed an agreement with the Government of Punjab “to put the state on the data superhighway”.

In March this Bharti Airtel launched prepaid and postpaid 4G services in Chandigarh, Mohali & Panchkula for its customers.

4G is the fourth generation of mobile phone mobile communications standards. It is a successor of the third generation (3G) standards. A 4G system provides mobile ultra-broadband Internet access, for example to laptops with USB wireless modems, to smartphones, and to other mobile devices.

The company said that this would boost provide a major fillip to growth of broadband services in rural areas and enable delivery of services such e-governance, e-education, e-health and much more.

“In particular, it will provider fillip to the growth of the digital economy in the State and support businesses as well as the Government”, the company said.

Airtel said the initiative is aimed at building Punjab a digitally inclusive State. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises said, “Just like the mobile phone connected millions across Punjab, this high speed data connectivity initiative will further empower people with information and services available at the touch of a screen. I am confident that this initiative will make Punjab a model State for rest of the country.”

Airtel will also invest in its existing 2G mobile operations, Wire-line & DSL Broadband, DTH services, M-Commerce Services offering in the State.

It will also expand its Enterprise Services offerings that provide end-to-end technology solutions to Corporates and SMEs, the company said.

Airtel has over 7.2 million customers in Punjab and has so far invested over Rs 4800 crores in its operations in the State. Its mobile network covers all 162 towns and 12,750 villages, reaching 94% of the population.