With Tata Do Co Mo unveiling its 3G plan yesterday,Bharti Airtel stepped in and threw water over mobile phone users hopes of extremely cheap usage charges for this new service. The cell phone using fraternity had been salivating at the prospect of another tariff war unleashing extreme competition that would in turn lead to low rates. This would run contrary to the GSM,and to an extent in CDMA,mobile telephony space where rivalry between telecom companies led to slashing of rates to an extent that India today offers some of the cheapest rates to make cell phone calls and other services like SMSes. Bharti Airtel today said there is no possibility of a tariff war in 3G services as operators have shelled out high prices for bagging spectrum. Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor told reporters here that it was unlikely that there would be a tariff war in 3G space under rational circumstances. "Irrationality can never be explained," he added. With the entry of new players,the Indian telecom sector has seen fierce tariff wars eating into profitability of telcos. Bharti Airtel had bagged airwaves to offer 3G services in 13 out of 22 telecom circles. It plans to launch the service before the the end of this calendar year. For having a pan-India footprint,Kapoor said the company is in talks with "quality operators who have got 3G" for roaming pacts. Rival Tata Teleservices yesterday launched 3G services with a tariff of 0.66 paise per second. State-run BSNL and MTNL are already offering 3G services. There were speculations in the market that Bharti will enter into strategic alliance with Vodafone and Idea for rolling out 3G services pan India. 3G mobile services will allow high-speed content download and broadband services. Airtel had paid the highest amount of Rs 12,295.46 crore for securing 3G spectrum (radio waves) in 13 telecom circles. They include Delhi,Mumbai,Bangalore,Chennai and Hyderabad,which account for 21 per cent of India's data traffic and are expected to have the strongest uptake of 3G services. Bharti Airtel,which operates in 19 countries,already offers 3G services in Seychelles. It is also running 3G broadband services in Sri Lanka,Jersey and Guernsey.
