BSNL launches 3G mobile service In India

BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) has rolled out the third generation mobile services in Chennai. The nation-wide launch of 3G mobile service in Chennai that permits various upgraded services, comprising rich voice, data and video services, to the subscribers The state-run telecom Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), is all set to roll its 3G operations in 700 cities across north and east India by June and in the south by July. The company plan to cover over 700 cities in the next three months and the net outflow towards launching this service will be around Rs 2,700-crore. Presently, BSNL has 42-million mobile subscribers, which it wants to increase to about 60-million in the country by March 2010. Mr. M. Karunanidhi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, launched the service with an inaugural call to the Union Minister for Communication and IT, Mr A. Raja. Apart from this, the company had also come up a new tariff plan named as India-Golden 50\' through which a subscriber would be able to make long distance calls for 50 paise per minute from next month. Mr. Goyal also said that BSNL is looking at migrating about 5% of its client base of more than 5-crore to 3G around the middle of this year. Infrastructure and handsets would be ready for commercial launch by mid-April Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular and Reliance are still waiting for spectrum allocation process to roll out 3G services in india.