Yesterday we reported MTNL introducing voice email service for both of it’s wireless and landline subscribers, now MTNL has become the first telecom operator in the country to commercially launch third generation mobile services. The state owned company has invested Rs 4Bn to rollout 3G and are hoping to have 200,000 subscribers within a time span of two years.
Though the private operators have hit a bummer with the governement delaying the auction for spectrum, MTNL has been allotted the spectrum on the condition that it will pay the fee quoted by the highest bidder when the auction takes place. Though the MTNL customers are finnaly getting to use their 3G handsets,the service is very expensive.
A 3G user has to pay a one-time fee of Rs 500 as activation charges and a monthly rental of Rs 599. In addition, customers will have to pay for the calls they make and also for data downloads. For making calls to another operator’s network, MTNL users will have to pay Re 1 a minute. For calls within MTNL’s own network charges will be levied at 60 paise a minute. For applications such as Live TV and movie downloads Subscribers will have to pay Rs 5 for each MB download. For video calls, MTNL charges vary between Rs 3 and Rs 1.80 a minute. The MTNL customer can make an internation call using VOIP for as low as Rs 3/minute to more than 100 countries including Europe,US and Canada.
The service is currently available in the New Delhi Municipal Corporation area in Delhi. However, the company is investing Rs 500 crore to roll out a network across Delhi and Mumbai with an aim to get 2 lakh subscribers over the next 2 years. Because the initial rollout of 3G in India is voice centric, we can specifically see improved quality of voice calls, more and more people using VOIP services, especially we can see people increasingly use the services like SKYPE, which let users talk freely with good voice clarity.
One time charge + Monthly rental of Rs.500 + Rs.5 per MB = I don’t know what the value conscious Indian consumer wants !!
“One time charge + Monthly rental of Rs.500 + Rs.5 per MB”
This is how you kill a technology, people don’t use gprs because they think its expensive.who’s going to pay so much for 3g.
lets be patient guys…it has just started..remember when cell fones were introduced..?? u had to pay rs 16 per min for a call…!!!
the scenario has changed a lot now…the govt needs to let the people know more about the 3g…only its popularity amongst the masses will ensure the future of 3g in india..
The charges are pretty High..its coz only MTNL and BSNL has 3G so a kind of a monopoly is formed..& besides it makes good business sense on part of them to use this price skimming strategy at an early stage until competition sets in…
The charges will surely reduce with time…