Aircel plans 3G roll-out before World Cup

Mobile telephony service provider Aircel plans to launch 3G services in the country before the cricket World Cup. The company, which has got 3G licences for 13 telecom circles in the country, will launch its service in a phased manner across these circles.

Among the other Indian service providers, Tata Docomo, BSNL, MTNL and Airtel have already rolled out their 3G services.

"We are planning to launch our 3G services soon, most probably before the World Cup cricket tournament kicks off. We want to democratise the Internet experience in the country. We also want our users to experience the World Cup cricket matches on their hand-held devices," said Gurdeep Singh, chief operating officer, Aircel.

It is in talks with couple of other service providers for sharing spectrum for roaming services in the circles were Aircel does not have a presence.

"We are in touch with some of the players for roaming services in circles where we don't have a licence to operate," he added.

Aircel is expected to begin its 3G service in Karnataka, especially in Bangalore as the city has got huge number of techie population.

It also said that even though majority of its various Internet packages users were from the urban areas, users from smaller towns have also started using its internet packages.

Meanwhile, Aircel has also entered a partnership with PC manufacturer Dell to provide its Internet packages as bundled offer with Dell's new smarthphones.

According to Dell, the increase in the use of data and social media will drive the adoption of mobile computing devices in the country.

The company, which recently launched its tablet Dell Streak in India, said smartphone adoption was witnessing a tremendous growth.

To tap the growing smartphone market Dell announced the expansion of its mobile portfolio with the launch of two smartphone variants - Dell Venue and Dell Venue Pro.

Mahesh Bhalla, executive director and general manager, Consumer and SMB Dell India, said: "Our strategy is to continue creating smart and innovative mobile experiences to help people discover new ways to enjoy the web and connect with friends."