Posts Tagged ‘Bharti Airtel Ltd’

iPhone 4 launched in India at Rs 34,500

Telecommunication firms–Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Aircel Ltd. have started selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4 smartphones  in a bid to tap growing smartphone consumption in the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone market.

The plans are pretty interesting as well. You have to pay upfront the price for the phone and then for the lock-in period of 2 years, for a fixed monthly rent of INR 800 (Around 18$) . The enticing offer is that over a 2 year span, the savings through this plan would be equivalent of buying the phone itself.

In a news release, Aircel said it will offer the new model of iPhone–which is popular for its high-speed Internet and mobile software capabilities–under both post-paid and pre-paid subscription plans.

Vodafone, Idea for pan-India 3G partnership

India’s top mobile phone company by subscribers Bharti Airtel Ltd. is in talks with local rivals, including Vodafone Essar Ltd. and Idea Cellular Ltd., on a strategic partnership to offer third generation services across the country, the Business Line reported Friday, citing Airtel’s Chief Executive Sanjay Kapoor.

While Bharti has won spectrum in 13 circles, Vodafone has 3G airwaves in nine and Idea in 11 circles. A network sharing or national roaming deal between the networks would enable them to offer services throughout the country, excluding Orissa. The three operators also jointly own the independent tower operator, Indus Tower, which will enable them to share basic infrastructure for 3G rollout.

While Mr Kapoor did not reveal the names of the operators in the alliance or the nature of the proposed partnership, he said that the deal will be firmed up before the company starts rolling out its 3G services by December. Industry sources indicated that Vodafone and Idea could be the likely partners.

Airtel 3G Vendors

Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel Ltd said it selected Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies as its network partners to launch 3G services in India.

While Bharti Airtel has awarded network contracts for seven 3G circles to Ericsson India, NSN would manage networks in three circles. Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies has been introduced as the third partner for three circles.