Bharti Airtel to (Finally) launch 3G services in India next week

The country’s biggest private cellular operator, Airtel has announced that they are going to launch their 3G services in a week’s time. This announcement follows the government’s nod to allow 3G video calls which were previously absurdly prevented from being launched.

“We will make the announcement for the commercial launch of our 3G service in next six to seven days,” Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor said.

Airtel secured 3G licenses for 13 out of 22 telecom circles in India in the auction held last year. And the Delhi circle is in that list.

Let’s hope that the launch goes through without any hiccups this time.

Thanks Amit for the tip.

[via TOI]

DoT approves 3G video calling (3G is coming)

3G is coming. As per the latest news, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has given a go ahead the operators to launch 3G video calling services in India with an undertaking from every operator that they will provide necessary options to the government to intercept 3G video calls.

A few weeks back, when all the pan india private operators were on the brink of rolling out their 3G services, the DoT intervened and stopped them saying that they cannot allow the commercial launch of 3G services unless they have means to intercept and monitor 3G video calls. It was a total KLPD for both the operators and consumers as everyone was totally geared up for the 3G launch. Even Tata Docomo and Reliance, who had already launched their 3G service before this fiasco were asked to hold off on 3G video calls until further notice.

Let’s hope that there are no more stupid issues now and 3G sees the dawn of the day in India.

[pluggd.in via Business Insider]

3G launch in India might be delayed (yet again) [WTF]

Just when Indians were looking forward to finally be able to justify the 3G enabled handsets they have been buying since the last 5 years, Indian government has poked their nose again at the 11th hour restricting the launch of 3G service by cellular operators in the name of “security”. Yeah, the same “security” thing that almost banned blackberry’s services a few months back.

Indian government is afraid that with 3G services, users will be able to do more than just talk on their cellphones. And at very high speed. They have asked the cellular operators to hold the launch of 3G services until they (the cellular operators) have the infrastructure in place for the government security agencies to be able to intercept these activities in real time. That’s basically a euphemism for – “we won’t let you launch 3G services until the government officials have the infrastructure to peep into your users’ activities”.

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Airtel goes for rebranding, unveils a new logo

Bharti is is all set to re-brand itself. They have put in 300 crores for a makeover all over the world. The re-branding was done by JWT and is believed to be launched next week.

For the first time in over 15 years they are going to get a completely new logo. The logo is a stylized character a with airtel (all small) written at the bottom. It certainly looks fresh and simple but I am not to sure about the font they used. It somehow doesn’t look professionally done at all. What’s your take?

[via - IndiaMag]

Tata Docomo becomes the first private operator in India to offer 3G services

Seriously. Airtel, Vodafone and Idea should go drown themselves in a cup of water. A network much younger to them has beaten them in launching 3G services in the fastest growing telecom market in the world.

It seems like yesterday that Tata Docomo launched in India with their awesome ad campaign and the amazing jingle and induced a price war in the telecom space in India. It is a result of this price war that we are seeing dirt cheap call prices in India today.

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Airtel gearing up to launch 3G services in India; iPhone 4 and iPad in handset list

One of the preferred wireless carrier in India, Bharti Airtel is gearing up to roll out its 3G services across their circles in India. Airtel has launched a micro site dedicated to providing information on their 3G services in India. Airtel had previously announced their 3G data cards in India signaling the proposed launch of 3G services.

The micro site provides general information about 3G capabilities, comparison between 2G and 3G and information on various other value added services that will be offered from Airtel.

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Airtel Broadband disconnection woes

Everyone knows that it’s a major trouble to disconnect a service from any provider in the Indian telecom industry. They will plead, offer discounts and try everything till you get pissed, leave it as is and stop paying the bills. And then they sue you for not paying the bills.

Since I was aware of the issues, I planned to disconnect my Airtel Broadband connection well in advance. I called them up and to my surprise they were really friendly. They offered to transfer the connection to any city or any individual in the same city. I said no and they explained the procedure to me – Give a disconnection request, go and submit the instruments to the nearest customer care office, pay the dues and your job is done. I did the same. They told me the present dues are already paid, my connection will be disconnected in 24 hours and they will send the remaining bill at the end of the month after which they will return any security deposit that was made. I came back happily appreciating Airtel! But of course I was mistaken.

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Airtel launches micro SIM cards in India; Launch of iPhone 4 imminent

The iPhone 4 & iPad accept micro SIM cards only. Although we have been cropping the mini SIM cards in India and using them with iPad and iPhone 4, many people are still hesitant to do that and are waiting for an official solution.

Today, Airtel has launched micro SIM cards in India, clearly indicating that they are gearing up for launching the iPhone 4 in India. We cannot say the same about the iPad as it will probably be sold by Apple and not Airtel.

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Airtel launches 3G data modems in India

Bharti Airtel is all set to enter the 3G data business. It has been only a day since the government allocated the 3G spectrum to operators and Airtel has already launched 3G data modems in India. Although, you will not be able to use them until 3G services are started.

Tata Teleservices launches India’s first Mobile broadband Wi-Fi solution

Tata Teleservices has launched India’s first Wi-Fi based mobile broadband solution called TATA Photon Wi-Fi at a price tag of INR 4999. The pocket sized device lets multiple devices like laptop, smartphones or tablets connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi. The device itself connects to Tata’s network over the carrier’s CDMA network (similar to its other photon devices).

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