Airtel to roll out 3G services by Oct 2010

Barely a week after the government cleared the reserve price for 3G spectrum auction, the country's largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel (BHARTIARTL.BO : 283.65 +2.65), said it would launch 3G services by October 2010. The statement confirms an FE analysis that 3G services would commence within a year's time, as the auctions are slated to take place in the next three months and operators would take around six months from the date of allocation of spectrum to begin the services.

3G services provide for faster video streaming and data download on mobile phones and are distinct from the current 2G services. Operators participating in the auction would have to pay a reserve price of Rs 3,500 for pan-India spectrum.

"If everything is on time with regard to spectrum auction, we will have spectrum allocation by February or March. By Diwali 2010, we will have the commercial launch of 3G services in India," Bharti Airtel CEO Manoj Kohli said on the sidelines of a function organised by Qualcomm.

Meanwhile, Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, which is the global patent holder for CDMA mobile technology and also provides the WCDMA technology used for 3G services and applications, while commenting on the growth of 3G network worldwide, said the number of 3G users would exceed 2G users globally by 2011.

"The cost of deploying 3G network would be much cheaper in India than other markets, as the technology would be deployed at a time when a lot of innovation has already taken place in the segment," Peggy Johnson, EVP Americas and India, Qualcomm, told FE.

With the announcement of the reserve price for 3G auctions, the action seems to have begun in this space with Korean mobile handset manufacturer LG on Wednesday announcing its tie-up with Qualcomm to launch high-end 3G-enabled handsets in India. "The smartphone 'LG GM 730' is priced at Rs 24,000 and is based on Qualcomm's chipset. It also comes with Windows mobile and touch screen that will offer faster email set-up and download," LG Electronics India business group head (GSM) Anil Arora said. "The company is aiming to sell 10,000 units of this model per month," Arora said. With the new model, the company is targeting a 20% market shares in the touch screen mobile segment in the country, he said.

The country's sixth largest mobile operator, Tata Teleservices, also announced that it was all set to launch Netbooks priced between Rs 5,000- Rs 40,000 using the Qualcomm chip. The Netbooks would provide high-speed Internet access and the telecom operator has tied up with Olive Telecommunication, an arm of Chinese electronic maker Haier, for 10 models of netbooks that it would launch in India.