Mumbai, May 16 (IANS): Bharti Airtel on Saturday launched its fourth generation (4G) trials, exclusively for its existing customers here, a company statement said.

As part of the initiative, customers across the city can now avail a complimentary upgrade to Airtel 4G at 3G prices.

"The company will use this trial phase as an opportunity to gather valuable customer feedback around the quality of its 4G services and assimilate these market insights into Airtel's wider agenda of building a world-class 4G network infrastructure for the city," the statement said.

"We want our existing customers to be the first ones to enjoy the Airtel 4G experience and are offering them a free upgrade to Airtel 4G at the same price as 3G," said Bharti Airtel's Ashok Ganapathy, hub chief executive officer of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat.

The company said to avail this offer, existing customers with 4G ready mobile devices can walk into any of Airtel's retail touch-points across Mumbai and upgrade to a 4G SIM.

Airtel has also announced go-to-market partnerships with Samsung and Flipkart to proliferate 4G devices.

Earlier in April 2012, Airtel had launched India's first 4G service in Kolkata.

Airtel's 4G services are now available across India including Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chandigarh and Amritsar.