Idea Cellular adds 1 million 3G users

Telecom major, Idea Cellular today said it has enrolled 1 million 3G users across the country within a month of launching its 3G services.

Idea, whose 3G services now cover 400 towns in nine circles across India, said it is committed to launch 10 new towns per day for the next year and extend the service to 50 per cent of its existing subscriber base.

The telecom company had started off its 3G services from three circles - Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh on 28 March, thereafter expanding to six other circles of UP East, UP West, Maharashtra & Goa, Kerala, Haryana, and Andhra Pradesh.

It is now looking at progressively expanding its 3G services to cover 750 towns by mid 2011, and 4,000 towns by the end of FY12.

Sashi Shankar, chief marketing officer, Idea Cellular, said, ''Early trends indicate high uptake of wireless broadband data by existing 3G handheld users.

''Data usage by Idea's 3G users is already at 20 per cent of the total mobile data usage recorded by the company, in the first month of launch, and this is expected to grow exponentially with the proliferation of services.''

Idea offers time-based billing plan and sachet trial packages with per day billing for high-end data access to its subscribers.