Aircel to roll out 3G services by early Jan

Telecom service provider Aircel today said it is planning to launch 3G services in the country by early January next year.

"We will roll out 3G services by early January 2011," Aircel Chief Operating Officer Gurdeep Singh told reporters here.

Aircel had bagged 3G spectrum in 13 out of the 22 telecom circles.

Recently, Aircel had given contract for rolling out 3G network infrastructure to equipment maker Ericsson in six circles.

Other telcos, who got 3G spectrum, like Tata DoCoMo, the GSM arm of Tata Teleservices had already launched the services. Besides, Tata, Airtel has also announced to launch its 3G services by the end of this year.

On the regulatory environment, Singh said that Aircel will comply with all government regulations.

Recently, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is understood to have recommended to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that licences of Aircel in some circles should be cancelled as it had failed to meet the rollout obligations.

Aircel, which has a pan-India operation with a subscriber base of over 48 million, said that it has not received any communication from the telecom regulator Trai or the DoT on the subject.