Bharti to launch 3G operations soon

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said it will launch its third-generation (3G) mobile services 'very soon'.

"The company will launch its 3G mobile services very soon," Bharti airtel chief executive for India and South Asia Sanjay Kapoor said. Bharti had won spectrum (radio waves) for 3G services in 13 of the country's 22 telecom service areas in the auction held by the government.

Last year its competitor, Tata DoCoMo, the GSM arm of Tata Teleservices, launched 3G services in nine circles where it has spectrum while RCom started its services in four circles making it the second private operator.

Besides, state-owned firms BSNL and MTNL are also offering 3G services in the country. Another major private player, Vodafone, plans to launch the services in the January-March quarter of 2011.

Bharti Airtel had 149.4 million mobile customers in India by the end of November. Replying to a question on the Bharti Zain's operations in Africa, Bharti Airtel's Chairman and MD Sunil Bharti Mittal said the integration is fully completed.

The operations are running under the airtel brand in all 15 nations. Last year, Bharti Airtel completed the acquisition of Zain Telecom's Africa operations for $10.7 billion to become the world's fifth largest mobile operator with 180 million subscribers in 18 Asian and African nations.