Telecom industry cannot afford tariff war in 3G space: Bharti

Airtel in talks with other operator for roaming pacts

PTI | November 10, 2010



Bharti Airtel today said there is no possibility of a tariff war in 3G services as operators have shelled out high prices for bagging spectrum.

Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor told reporters here that it was unlikely that there would be a tariff war in 3G space under rational circumstances. "Irrationality can never be explained," he added.

With the entry of new players, the Indian telecom sector has seen fierce tariff wars eating into profitability of telcos.

Bharti Airtel had bagged airwaves to offer 3G services in 13 out of 22 telecom circles. It plans to launch the service before the the end of this calendar year.

For having a pan-India footprint, Kapoor said the company is in talks with "quality operators who have got 3G" for roaming pacts.

Rival Tata Teleservices yesterday launched 3G services with a tariff of 0.66 paise per second. State-run BSNL and MTNL are already offering 3G services.

There were speculations in the market that Bharti will enter into strategic alliance with Vodafone and Idea for rolling out 3G services pan India.

3G mobile services will allow high-speed content download and broadband services.

Airtel had paid the highest amount of Rs 12,295.46 crore for securing 3G spectrum (radio waves) in 13 telecom circles.

They include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, which account for 21 per cent of India's data traffic and are expected to have the strongest uptake of 3G services.

Bharti Airtel, which operates in 19 countries, already offers 3G services in Seychelles. It is also running 3G broadband services in Sri Lanka, Jersey and Guernsey.


 

Comments

 

Other News

Railways imposed ₹5.13 crore fine for food quality and hygiene violations

Indian Railways serve about 58 crore meals every year on an average. About only 0.0008% food quality related complaints are received on average. Based on complaints during the last three years, appropriate penal actions have been taken by IRCTC. Such actions include imposition of fines amounting to ₹5.13

STHAVAR: Why every Indian built asset needs a permanent digital identity

India has built digital systems for identity, payments, taxation, documents, logistics and public services. State governments, ministries, infrastructure agencies and urban local bodies have also created portals for land records, building permissions, project monitoring, property taxation and municipal s

Saksham Skill census identifies 22,000 job-ready candidates in one Mumbai ward

A first-of-its-kind AI-enabled skill census conducted in Mumbai`s H-West Ward has identified a potential livelihood pipeline of nearly 22,000 candidates, generated over 32,000 provisional job matches while revealing that 71.2 per cent of surveyed homemakers are willing to join the workforce, according to

GI tags: Scaling traditional wealth into global brands

Geographical Indication (GI) tags have emerged as a powerful tool for protecting India`s cultural heritage, while creating economic opportunities for local communities. By linking products to their place of origin, GI tags preserve traditional knowledge, prevent misuse, and enhance consumer trust. They h

BMC: 207 officials in ACB net, 112 still on duty, 68 retire before justice catches up

There are significant delays in the handling of corruption cases involving officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), a Right to Information (RTI) response obtained by rights activist Jeetendra Ghadge has revealed. As of 30 April 2026, 207 BMC officials face Anti-Corruption Bureau (A

The transformation trap: Why efficiency is not innovation

Every company is transforming, or so it claims.   There was a time when the word ‘transformation’ carried weight. It signified bold strategic shifts, reinvention of business models, and breakthrough technologies that fundamentally changed how organizations created

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter