India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. plans to shift to Voice over LTE technology in its prime markets, Mint reported Jan. 26, citing comments by CEO Gopal Vittal.

The telco is "future-proofing" its network in anticipation of VoLTE gaining relevance in major Indian cities in the next 12 to 18 months, Vittal said during a call to investors.

Airtel has been using circuit switch technology on its 2G network for voice services.

Reliance Industries Ltd.'s newly launched Reliance Jio Infocomm is the only Indian telco with VoLTE, according to the report. The 4G-based mobile provider currently offers unlimited use of the service for free.