Today India’s biggest Private telecom player ‘Airtel’ Launched its 3G Mobile and Data Services. In a press conference at Bangalore Airtel officially announced the launch of pan-India 3G services , currently Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka will get Airtel 3G services and the telecom giant is targeting to launch the services in all its 13 3G license circles by March 2011.
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Airtel 3G Data Tariff Plans:
Also in the press conference Airtel introduced 3G tariffs plans which can be divided into Time-based and Flexi-shield plans.
Flexi-shield Plan:
The basic monthly rental is Rs. 650 which provides 1.25GB free data usage. If the data limit is crossed, Airtel will charge Rs. 10 Paise/MB till the bill reaches Rs. 2,000 or 14 GB data usage. After 14 GB data usage the speed will be brought down to 128kbps and user will never have to pay more than Rs. 2,000.
Time-based Plans:
Occasional users
Rs. 9 for 10 MB, validity 1 day
Rs. 45 for 40 MB Validity 3 days
Rs. 60 for 65 MB, validity 3 days
Medium Users –
Rs. 103 for 100 MB, validity 30 days
Rs. 200 for 250 MB, validity 30 days
Rs. 450 for 600 MB, validity 30 days
Rs. 750 for 2 GB, validity 30 days.
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How to Activate Airtel 3G on your Mobile?
To activate the Airtel 3G service on your Mobile you need to send a SMS ‘3G‘ to 121, If you had any previous 2G Data Plan it will be de-activated and “Pay As You Go” 3G Data Plan will be activated which will charge all data access for 30 paise / 20 KB or RS 15/MB.
In the Press conference Mr. Sanjay Kapoor, CEO – bharti airtel Ltd (India & South Asia) said, “It is indeed the start of a new era when 3G services in India roll out on airtel’s network. World over ‘Data traffic’ on the back of high speed internet and use of social networking has already exceeded the ‘Voice traffic’. India is ushering in the domain – though later than most of the world – but no doubt we will catch up at a much faster speed. 3G is much more than a technology migration – it is a transformational shift – and airtel’s focus would be to bring to its customers an enriched user experience on the back of a world class delivery network. I welcome all 745 million mobile customers of the country to be a part of this journey with airtel!”
My View :
Airtel didn’t mention the Minimum (3G) or Maximum speed, it just said it 3G services are delivered on a state-of-the-art high-speed HSPA network and their network is capable of speeds up to 21MBps. Also Airtel 3G Tariff plans are big disappointment there are No Unlimited plans and when compared Government owned BSNL 3G Tariff Plans are better than Airtel, I’m thinking their License fee (Rs. 12,296 crores ) for the spectrum is playing key role here.