Pune – first Indian city to roll out 3G

That, I didn’t see coming.

As per reports, starting TODAY, 2,000 ‘high value’ customers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited will be able to access 3G services at select areas of the city.

No idea what you need to do to qualify as High Value. I thought bearing BSNL’s slow and pathetic services, customer and otherwise, suffice.

Within two km of the 10 BTS that are 3G enabled, customers will be able to access 3G services. There will be no additional cost for the time being as we are in the trail period, customers will be able to access 3G services at 2G rates,” said Chandra Prakash, Chief General Manager, Maharashtra circle, BSNL.

The 10 3G hot spots in Pune are the exchanges at Satara Road, Bajirao Road, Bhavani Peth, MHS – Camp, Atur Park, Shivaji Nagar, Model Colony, Janavadi, Chinchwad and Bal Gandharva. Once the 3G spectrum is auctioned, BSNL will provide this service at 56 cities in the state, said Prakash.

10 hotspots and a 2km radii for each. Sufficient? Doubt that.

At 2G rates during the trial period. I thought 2G is still in the trial period. Do they have UATs in telecom??

However, when 3G is launched commercially, it will make possible other services like video conferencing, online gaming, high speed internet, video streaming, live IPTV, video-on demand on 3G enabled mobile phones.

“We have been asked to design the equipment for 20 per cent of the customer base,” said Neeraj Sinha, Alcatel-Lucent, the vendor company for BSNL.

At present, BSNL is waiting for 3G spectrum to be officially auctioned. “The cost of the services will depend upon the auction of the spectrum. The number of people opting for 3G services will also matter, but it will still be expensive if the spectrum is auctioned at a high price,” said Mahendra.

So it depends on the auctions.

Auction design, for very good reasons, is a dedicated topic of study in Economics. I truly hope, being a country which has produced some excellent economists, there are a few who’ve been working on our 3G auctions.

All said and done, we know it’ll take time to really kick in, but when it does, it’ll be interesting to see how it sticks in a market like ours.

More on that later.

Update: BSNL High Value customers are those on the Rs 750 plan.