India’s state-owned BSNL plans to launch 4G service by next March and said it will match the 3G prices of competitors by the end of the year.

Anupam Shrivastava, the operator’s chairman and managing director, told the Economic Times it will offer competitive tariffs to match Reliance Jio Infocomm and other players when it launches 4G next year, but will first lower 3G rates by end 2015.

BSNL, which has an 8 per cent market share, has 2.5GHz of spectrum in 15 service areas.

The announcement comes as the country’s leading operators race to roll out speedier networks to capture consumers’ growing appetite for data services.

Market leader Bharti Airtel has been aggressively pushing 4G across the country and recently said it plans to expand its 4G service, currently offered in 45 cities and towns, to 296 urban areas.

The push is aimed at gaining an edge on new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm, which has delayed its pan-India 4G launch from June to the end of the year.

Vodafone India, the country’s second largest operator, said last month it will launch 4G services in five cities, including Mumbai and Delhi, by the end of the year.