Public sector telecom major, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), is all set to launch its 3G operations in 700 cities across north and east India by June and east India by June and in the south by July, a senior company official said.

"We plan to bring 3G to north and east India by June," BSNL Deputy Director General (VAS) S S Sirohi told reporters here today.

The services would be launched in east and west Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. We plan to cover over 700 cities in the next three months (by June)," Sirohi said.

The company is also targeting its 3G launch in Kolkata next month. The net outflow towards launching this service in the 700 cities is around Rs 2,700-crore (Rs 27 billion), he said.

BSNL, with a huge presence in the northern and eastern parts of India, has 42-million mobile subscribers presently.

"By March 2010, the number of our 3G subscribers will go up to about 60-million in the country," Sirohi said.

The state-run telecom behemoth would focus on mobile broadband, mobile television, online gaming, video streaming, full track downloading and video telephony, he said.

MTNL [Get Quote] to soft-launch 3G in Mumbai

State-run Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd, which has already rolled out third-generation or 3G services in the capital, will soft-launch the new technology in Mumbai by end-April, principal general manager W S Peeyush Agarwal told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

MTNL is a Government of India enterprise, which has operations in Mumbai and Delhi.

The BSE-listed telecom operator soft-launched its 3G services in Delhi on December 11, 2008 and began commercial operations from February.