Airtel launches 3G services in India

Bangalore: Bharti Airtel launched its 3G service in India Monday hoping to bring a richer mobile internet experience to its customers. Its rollout plans, it said, would cover 1500-plus cities across the country by March of next year.

The telecom operator said it would launch 3G service in 40-plus cities in 13 telecom circles where it had secured 3G licenses by March this year. In the circles where it has no 3G licence, it is currently in discussions with other operators to start service and said these discussions were in "active closure stage".

"Airtel 3G footprint will be available across the country (by March 2012)", Airtel's president, mobile services, Atul Bindal said in Bangalore

Company officials said the company's investment in the 3G roll-out initiative across the country is in the range of Rs12,000-13,000 crore. This does not include licence fee and service infrastructure, information technology backbone and go-to-market expenses, among others.

Bindal indicated that the company's ARPU (average revenue per user) would improve post 3G service launch,  and that the outlook on this front was "positive." He declined to provide specific numbers.

On pricing, the company will offer tariff plans for light users of data, where usage and billing would be by the hour and flexi-shield plans for heavy users of data, where usage and billing would be capped.

There would be sachet packs of Rs10, Rs60, Rs200, Rs450 and Rs750, and for heavy-users, the entry-level price is Rs650 (up to 1.25 GB) going up to Rs2,000 (up to 14 GB), officials said.

Airtel said: "The airtel internet on 3G gives customers the power of higher speeds to enjoy multimedia services, high speed mobile broadband and internet access with the ability to view videos on your mobile phone, make video calls, watch live TV, access high speed internet and enjoy live streaming...".