Bharti to keep 3G ‘affordable’ – but unlikely to be cheap

Telecom major Bharti Airtel, scheduled to roll out 3G services in the 13 circles for which it has won spectrum before the end of this year, yesterday said that it will keep these services affordable.

Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of the country's top telecom operator, said, "We will price our 3G services in a way so as to balance it to the investments that we have made in acquiring the spectrum and building infrastructure. Tariffs will be affordable."

However, he did not spell out what ''affordable'' meant. Earlier, in August, Sanjay Kapoor, Bharti's chief executive officer for India and South Asia regions, had said that he expects 3G services to be priced higher because of expensive bids. "The bid prices have taken away the possibility of providing these services at cheap prices.

Data services on 3G will also not come at throwaway prices," he had said.

Mittal said, "The price of the auctions was high. But India is a "massification" story and we will be able to offer competitive tariffs. Our packaging will be more innovative."

Bharti is banking on 3G services to shore up its average revenue per user (ARPU). ''There is a large potential to uplift ARPU through 3G and data services,'' Mittal said.
For the September quarter, Bharti's ARPU in India fell 20 per cent from a year ago to Rs 202 per month.