Three cheers to 3G
At last, 3G has made it’s way to India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the 3G services on state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam’s (MTNL) networks in Delhi. MTNL thus becomes the first telecommunications company in India to offer 3G to it’s customers.
MTNL said that they would not be charging their customers for the 3G services, till the “actual launch” in January 2009, so that the customers can get a feel of what 3G really is. 3G will also be making its way to Mumbai in January.
Coming to the all important question of tariffs, MTNL are said to be still working on it, but tariff is expected to be affordable for all.
Soon, BSNL will also be starting its 3G services and once the spectrum allocation process is done through the auctions, private players will also enter the field, hopefully by mid-2009.
Now that 3G is here, it’s now time that we Indians really understood what it really is, and what we can expect from it. Am stressing this because, many mobile buyers were “fooled” by telcos and mobile manufacturers into buying 3G mobiles. The result was that the buyers thought 3G was an inherent feature in the mobiles they bought, something like bluetooth, say. I was really vexed to see the ads of Apple Iphone 3G from Airtel. The ad highlighted that the phone is 3G, only to have a small asterix point to some text like “3G is not available in India”. Well, anyway now 3G is very much here and you better get acquainted with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G
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