3G mobile services by mid-2008

Thursday, 25 October 2007, 19:30 IST
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New Delhi: Mobile telephony users across the country will be able to enjoy third generation (3G) cell phone technology by the middle of next year, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said Thursday. Raja said it was crucial for telecom operators to have spectrum or radio waves available to roll out 3G services. "The government is cognizant of the fact that a key hurdle to the rollout of 3G services is availability of spectrum," Raja said at a telecom summit here. "We are hopeful that some spectrum for both 2G (second generation) and 3G services will be vacated by the end of this year. I hope that would pave the way for a rollout of 3G services by mid next year," the minister added. Asked how much spectrum would be vacated, the minister replied on the sidelines: "That is up to the defence ministry to decide." He also said the government was waiting for final recommendations from the Telecom Engineering Centre, technical arm of the Department of Telecommunications, which are likely to be announced in Oct 30. 3G spectrum enables mobile telecom service providers to offer high-speed data services such as high-speed mobile Internet, video download and instant messaging.
Source: IANS