Following closely in the footsteps of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), which launched 3G services in Delhi in December 2008, the other staterun telecom operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), too rolled out its 3G mobile offering. The services were softlaunched in Chennai in February.
At the event, BSNL’s chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal announced, “3G mobile services will be made available on a commercial basis from April 20 across Tamil Nadu.”
Soon after, BSNL rolled out services in Lucknow, Agra, Dehradun, Ambala, Jammu, Shimla, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Patna, Durgapur, Haldia, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar. By the end of the year, BSNL plans to take the service to all key cities, commercially important towns and all district headquarters. It will cover 700 cities in the first phase of its 3G rollout plan, at a proposed investment of Rs 27 billion.
The new service offers a data speed of 2 Mbps against the 144 kbps currently available over GPRS and EDGE-enabled mobile networks. Video streaming applications such as live TV and movie downloads as well as high speed data transfers will become possible at this speed. According to BSNL officials, callers will also be able to see each other on their 3Genabled mobile phone screens.
The state-run operators have had a headstart in this area owing to the allocation of 3G spectrum. They were given one block of 2.5 MHz 3G spectrum for all telecom circles of the country in 2008, way ahead of the auction for private players. This was done in view of the cumbersome tendering process involved in the public sector procurement system.
Making the most of this, BSNL has lost no time in introducing the service. For the initial launch, Chennai Telephones installed 25 stations (node Bs), which will be increased significantly over the coming months.
The tariff plans for the service have been kept competitive. Users will be able to choose from three monthly subscription options of Rs 350, Rs 650 and Rs 1,350. Apart from this, customers can also avail of 3G services bundled with other offers. The company has already tied up with Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung for handset bundling, the cheapest of which is priced at Rs 7,000. Voice tariff schemes begin from a fixed monthly charge of Rs 350 for prepaid, and Rs 500 for post-paid. Data subscriptions are available starting at Rs 250. The company has also tied up with Micromax and Huawei for offering laptop data cards at prices ranging from Rs 3,800 to Rs 6,000. “Trials are on to launch mobile banking as well on our 2G and 3G platforms,” said Goyal.
Goyal expects that at least 5 per cent of its 2G subscribers will migrate to 3G services. BSNL officials expect their 3G subscriber base to go up to 60 million by March 2010. This implies Rs 5-Rs 10 billion of additional revenue, and a 20 per cent revenue augmentation through infrastructure sharing.
At the inauguration of BSNL’s 3G service, the minister for communications and IT, A. Raja, said that this was a big step forward for the country. He also stated that he was confident that the group of ministers (GoM) to whom the issue of spectrum allocation and auction has been referred, would soon clear the decks for 3G spectrum allocation to private players. Raja expects the telecom ministry to start 3G spectrum auctions by March 31.
Raja further noted that the nationwide launch of mobile number portability (MNP) services would be possible by August 2009. According to him, MNP services would be first extended to the metros followed by other cities by the year end. Bids have already been invited for providing MNP switches.
Meanwhile, on the same occasion, BSNL also announced its “India Golden 50” tariff scheme, which offers STD, local calls and SMSs at Re 0.50 per minute across all networks. Intra-network BSNL calls are cheaper at Re 0.20 per minute for local calls and Re 0.30 per minute for STD calls. The monthly rental for the scheme has been pegged at Rs 375.
According to Raja, all these measures will help the country achieve its target of 700 million phone connections by 2010, if the developments proceed at their current pace.
As we go to press, it appears that the Intelligence Bureau has security issues with 3G services. Under its directions, DoT has asked BSNL and MTNL to stop providing the services till call monitoring services are made available to the intelligence agencies.
