Aircel enters Punjab, plans to roll out 3G by year-end

Cellular operator Aircel today announced the launch of its GSM mobile service in Punjab and said that it would scale up its investment to Rs 1,000 crore by end of 2011 on network expansion in the state.

"We have invested a sum of Rs 350 crore for entering Punjab market and we intend to raise the level of investment to Rs 1,000 crore by end of 2011," Company’s Chief Operating Officer Gurdeep Singh said today.

He added, “We are introducing our products and services uniquely tailored to meet special needs of customers and our focus will be on tapping SME, youth and family dependents in this potential market.”

With the launch, Aircel has now become the eighth player in Punjab market besides Airtel, Reliance, Tata Docomo, Idea, Vodafone, BSNL and Videocon.

The mobile operator is also planning to commence its 3G services by end of December this year across all the 13 circles after it paid Rs 6,500 crore to government in a bid to acquire the 3G licence.

"Launch of 3G could be in two phases but we will attempt to launch 3G in all the circles by end of this year since spectrum will be released in September itself,” he said.