Airtel to launch 3G services by December 2010

Bharti Airtel on Thursday said it will commercially launch 3G, or third-generation, services by the end of next month.

Airtel will come up with 3G services by the end of this year. The initial availability of 3G services will be provided in 13 regions namely Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh( West), Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Karnataka, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, North East Region, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu 7 Kashmir.

Apart from BSNL and Airtel, Docomo will be launching 3G services within next 1-2 days. Vodafone will launch later on in the first quarter


Bharti won spectrum (radio waves) for 3G services in 13 of the country's 22 telecoms service areas in the auction held by the government earlier this year.

Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/airtel-to-launch-3g-services-by-december-end-122554?cp

Reliance Mobile to launch 3G Service

BSNL introduces 3G mobile services

Unlike other countries, Most of the India is still waiting for 3G mobile services to be launched. Looks like that our bureaucrats are not in hurry to give license to telecom companies for 3G. Earlier before Election, it was said to have 3G spectrum auction around JUNE but now they are saying that it will be somewhere near the end of Year 2009.. so not sure when exactly whole India will enjoy 3G. However, BSNL and MTNL, State RUN telecom companies already got 3G license but still not available throughout, however I happen to be in one of the city where BSNL 3G is available.

So here are few details which might help you if you are first time 3G user.

Activating BSNL 3G

Activation is quite easy, all you need is to buy 3G SIM which costs Rs. 300 with 7 days validity and no talk time, after that you are required to recharge it with one of the data recharge they provide.

You can start with Rs. 400 recharge which give you 30 days validity and 1 GB of data usage.

Settings / Configuration for BSNL 3G on Mobile

It is very easy, configuration are similar to GPRS so you will not find it hard if you configured GPRS ever
1. Make sure your PHONE is set to work on 3G network i.e. in my phone, to use 3G network, I had to select "WCDMA" in my network mode settings. You should see "3G" written somewhere on your phone screen if it is connected to 3G network.
2. Now depending upon the phone, go to Connection settings, there create new connection profile and now you are only required to specify APN and you are done.

APN stands for "ACCESS POINT NAME" . You are required to specify following APN for BSNL 3G settings:

gprsnorth3g.bsnlmobile.in

Apart of that, leave every thing default or blank and you are done.Now you should be able to use 3G on your phone.

Speed of BSNL 3G internet

I tested speed of 3G in my area, I was getting around 800 kbps download speed at my home and around 1.4 mbps when I tried test from another location. In most of the case, you will not get less than 500 kbps speed. That is pretty good as compared to current mobile internet option we have in India.

Now this BSNL 3G works as backup connection as well as internet on move for me as now I have two connection, 1 my regular aDSL and second one this BSNL 3G.

Triple SIM Phones- 3 Sim Mobile Phone

Videocon VC1425

Videocon just released its latest handset army including the VC1425 triple SIM handset (GSM+GSM+CDMA). The phone has VGA camera with 3x digital zoom and .avi video recording, MP3 player, bluetooth, 2" TFT screen, Stereo FM recording and upto 2GB expandable memory.

Intex IN 5030

Intex just launched this triple SIM (GSM+GSM+CDMA) mobile phone. The phone is Java enabled and has two batteries each providing a talk time and stand-by of up to 4 and 120 hrs

LePhone Triple SIM Phone

Lephone 3 Sim Card Phone features 2GSM + 1 CDMA,3.0 MP Camera,GPRS,Bluetooth,FM Radio. The phone has microSD card for memory extension, has mp3 player