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Aircel launches 3G service in Chennai

Posted on: 22/Feb/2011 11:02:25 PM
Telecom operator Aircel, which completed its national roll out last year, on Tuesday launched its 3G services from Chennai. The company plans to complete its 3G roll out across all 13 circles, for which it had bagged the rights, by mid-March.

Aircel, now majorly owned by Malaysias Maxis, a global telecom player with over 40 per cent of revenues from non-voice services, is also gearing up to further invest well over Rs 20,000 crore to beef up its presence in the Indian market. Aircel has a subscriber base of around 51 million, and is said to be adding around 1.6 million new subscribers every month.

Weve invested around Rs 23,000 crore and plan to invest equal amount over the next 3-4 years to take up our cumulative investment to around Rs 45,000 crore in the country. The additional investment will be used to augment both our 2G as well as the 3G services in India, said Gurdeep Singh, COO, Aircel.

The youth comprise over 50 per cent of the countrys around 1.2 billion population. The launch of 3G services on Aircel will address the digital needs of young consumers, thus unleashing the power of the internet further creating opportunities for education, employment, engagement and entertainment, leading to empowerment of consumers, he said.

Having started off its 3G services from Chennai, since Tamil Nadu was the companys original home base, Aircel plans a series of launches and reach outs to subscribers in 11 circles over the next seven days. We will complete the roll out in all 13 circles by mid-March and expect about 35 per cent of our total subscribers will opt for this service over five years, he said.

Aircel is also in discussions with other operators for launching 3G services in the circles where it did not win the spectrum. We have 3G licences in 13 circles ... And are in talks with operators in the remaining circles. We hope it to be finalised in coming weeks, Singh said.

To make its 3G services affordable and easy-on-the-pocket, Aircel also unveiled several packages to suit the needs of a cross-section of subscribers from students to corporate executives. Starting from a base rate package of 3 paise for 10 kb, the packages are priced between Rs 132 to Rs 802 for 75MB 1024 MB data respectively with in-built voice and SMS. There is an unlimited user package for Rs 1,275 to suit the needs of heavy users too.