This Diwali, Tata Docomo joins the 3G bandwagon

By Suman Ravikumar, SiliconIndia   |   Thursday, 04 November 2010, 16:46 IST   |    4 Comments
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Bangalore: Two months back Tata Docomo promised to launch 3G services for Indian consumers and 'yes' Tata kept up to their word by launching the '3G Life' services in India ,this Diwali. Though the Indian government denied them the 2G spectrum in Delhi and other key districts, Tata Docomo still went ahead and became the first privately held company to launch 3G services in the country. The GSM arm of Tata Teleservices which gets its technology support from NTT DOcomo of Japan and Nokia Siemens Networks for its dongles will bridge internet access in all the nine circles where it has been given the 3G license i.e., Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh- Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, UP (West), Punjab, Haryana ad Maharashtra. Tata DoCoMo's 3G Life services will include applications like Video-SMS, Video-Streaming, Mobile Television, Ultra-High-Speed Data Transfers, Route-Finder, Live Aarti, and much more.Apalya's cutting edge technology will be used to provide high quality mobile TV services on Tata Docomo's 3G platform enabling subscribers to view television channels at a higher resolution and speed.Commenting on the occasion, Vamshi B Reddy, co-founder and CEO, Apalya, said,"We are proud to partner Tata Docomo to launch mobile TV services on 3G platform. The launch of 3G services is significant milestone in the evolution of telecom services in India and we are delighted to be a part of it. Our aim is to bring interactive, on demand, and informative entertainment into the hands of mobile users in an optimized and cost effective way." 3G services enables subscribers to download full length movies, make video calls and watch live television programs.The network also supports high-speed Internet access with speeds of up to 21.1 Mbps. Also, the support for high-definition voice (HD Voice) for a superior voice experience on calls exists. The existing sims of the consumers are already 3G enabled and all that the consumer needs to do is upgrade to a 3G handset to experience the technology and enjoy the perks. The service is free till the 11th of this month after which the tariff and other information will be announced. They will also have about 4,000 '3G life zones' where the consumers can get a firsthand experince of services and then to decide to use the 3G service or not. Deepak Gulati, executive president-Mobility of TTSL, said "They have broken the paradigm to give internet the power of mobility and consumer the power of Internet. We are expected to see growth in consumer s of about 10 to 15 percent in the next six months with the introduction of 3G services." Tata Teleservices Managing Director Anil Sardana said "We have been able to complete the ramp-up of our network to support 3G services due to the superb 3G-ready network we created at the time of our 2G launch itself, last year." MTNL and BSNL already have been testing 3G in India but only in select circles. Bharti Airtel , Aircel plans to launch 3G services before the end of 2010 and Vodafone Essar is eyeing a launch in the January-March 2011 quarter.