Airtel Announces 3G Services in 8 New Circles in India

Close on the heels of the company launching its 4G service for mobile users in Chandigarh and adjoining areas, Airtel has now announced the expansion of its 3G services to other circles in India.

This comes after the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) upheld its plea to provide 3G intra-circle roaming (ICR) services, Airtel on Sunday announced the resumption of its 3G services in eight circles of the country.

And as a result, 3G roaming services would now be available in Haryana, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, MPCG (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh), Gujarat, Kolkata and UP (East) from Monday onwards. 3G services translate towards better download speeds for end users and create a unique proposition for operators to leverage on data services, rather than traditional voice based revenue generation.

Airtel has also announced the tariffs for prepaid and postpaid users. For prepaid, the rates range between Rs. 25 and Rs. 350, while for post-paid it's between Rs 50-500.

It may be recalled that last week, a TDSAT bench in Delhi had said that 3G ICR agreement signed by Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular is not violative of their license agreement. Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular had approached TDSAT against Department of Telecom (DoT) order to stop 3G intra-circle roaming agreement under which they had also agreed to acquire customers in area where they did not win spectrum.

This is set to further increase the pace of 3G adoption in India and pave the way for larger level of infrastructure sharing.