Delhi to see India's first ever 3G mobile service this month

The state owned telecom operator, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), is all set to launch India’s first ever 3rd Generation (3G) full-fledged mobile service in the national capital by the end of this month while in Mumbai, it is expected by early next year.

The trail for 3G mobile services in Delhi will be in and around the Capital’s Connaught Place area.

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Indoor trial of 3G in Delhi has already been completed. This experimental service will be launched by the end of September, as per an official press release.

MTNL has already got the core equipments for successfully beginning this service on trial basis. Moreover, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has already allocated one block of spectrum each to MTNL in Delhi and Mumbai and to BSNL in other service areas before beginning the process of 3G Spectrum allocations.

According to DoT, each telecom players would get two blocks of spectrum allocation in each circle, as per TRAI’s recently released guidelines for 3 G spectrum allocation.

DoT has already begun the exercise of selecting the procedure of e-auctioneer agency, which would conduct the online bidding process for 3G-spectrum allocation. MTNL and BSNL will pay a price for the spectrum allocated to them equal to the highest bid in the respective service area.

MTNL plans to provide 3G services by installing 3G GSM core capacity of 750,000 lines each in Delhi and Mumbai. These lines are currently being installed. The Company has planned to expand GSM capacity in Delhi and Mumbai by 2 million each including 3G capacity.