Aircel to launch 3G services in Q1 next year,invest $500 mn

Aircel 3G India

Telecom service provider Aircel said it would spend over $500 million to roll out its third generation (3G) service in India in the January-March quarter of 2011.

While interacting with the media on the sidelines of the launch function of Aircel-Apollo Mobile Healthcare here today, Aircel COO Gurdeep Singh said that it would cover top ten cities in each circle where it is present.

Initially the company will launch 3G in top 10 cities of each circle and then will cover the rest of the states in which it has received spectrum.

The company had won spectrum for 13 new circles across India. These include Delhi (Metro), Mumbai (Metro), Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Goa, Rajasthan, Punjab, UP (West) and UP (East).

Aircel is a joint venture between Maxis Communications of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd of India. UTSB has a 74% stake in Aircel and the remaining 26% is with Apollo Hospitals.