Airtel rolls out 3G services in Hyd

Bharti Airtel Limited, the country's largest telecom player, started the roll out of its 3G services in Andhra Pradesh with the launch of the service in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

“There are 900 cell sites with 3G capabilities across the length and breadth of the city to take our services commercially live here. We will expand the services to cities like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur and Warangal over the next few weeks,” Atul Mohan Bindal, president (mobile services), told mediapersons here.

Airtel, is currently live in 21 cities, hosting 2 million customers on its 3G network, he said adding that the company's key target was its existing customers (both data and non-voice) and the new ones coming from the market place. “Between now and the same time next year, our target is to cover over 500 towns across the country with 3G.”

For faster internet accessibility, Airtel also launched 3G dondles for laptop users -- 3.6 mbps for Rs 1,500 and 7.2 mbps for Rs 2,000, besides launching B2B packages to cater to the 3G requirements of enterprise customers.

Airtel spent Rs 1,350 crore to get the 3G licence in Andhra Pradesh, and had invested over Rs 3,000 crore in the state so far in picking up the initial business.