3g in India

There have been some early adopters for the 3G technology in India and the landscape seems to continuously evolving

The third generation telecommunication is the next generation telecom technology that has just been introduced in the country. With the help of this technology one can have faster downloads quicker access to the web through mobiles, live streaming, high definition gaming and even video calling.

However, on the when put figuratively, the major difference between 3G and 2G networks is that the 3G networks can send data up to 40 times than it was possible in the older generation technology.

It has been a while since this technology has been available in the western country and lot of these countries are now even bracing fourth generation LTE (Long Term Evolution). Though LTE has been successfully tested, its total commercial deployment is still on its way.

Coming back to India, the 3G auctioned were held in May 2010 and Indian operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Tata Docomo and Aircel had gone with the 3G in a big way and had to literally pay through their noses to get their hands on the 3G airwaves. The 3G auctions had helped in generating revenues to the tunes of Rs 67,718.95 crore for the Government.

As of now almost all operators have started to offer their 3G services in the country. According to the recent figures by Cellular Association of India, India currently has 9 million users, who have subscribed to these services.

The first operator to start offering its services was Tata Docomo, which was followed by Reliance, Aircel, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. Now that most operators have started to offer 3G services, there everybody has competitively priced their offerings. There are a lot of options that are being provided as of now to suit the varying needs of today’s customers. Like there are daily plans, weekly plans and monthly plans. Also the operators are giving the option of pay as you go or opting in for unlimited plans for the ones looking at consuming higher amount of data. However, the current pricing is quite confusing and it’s advisable that one should analyze their usage and look at making a sensible choice in terms of both operator and tariff. It’s also advisable that one should try read between lines before select a plan as there are a lot of hidden terms and conditions that the operators may have.

Also for now it’s not really possible to have completed national roaming with 3G as there has been no pact signed to enable sharing of 3G network to ensure seamless 3G network across the country, like the one for 2G.