RCom, Tata Teleservices, Aircel in 3G tie-up

Reliance Communications (RCom), Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Aircel have entered into a tripartite agreement to provide 3G (third generation) roaming services to each other's customers using their network across the country. RCom and Aircel have permits for highspeed 3G services in 13 out of 22 service areas while Tata Teleservices has permit in nine circles.

"We are delighted to be the first operator to offer 3G national roaming to our customers in partnership with other telecom firms having state- of- the- art 3G networks.

These alliances will further consolidate RCom's position as the leading data operator in the country and will help the company improve its post-paid and corporate customer market share," RCom's chief executive officer for consumer business Gurdeep Singh said in a statement.

RCom circles comprise Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, North East, and Jammu & Kashmir. With this agreement, RCom gets access to five uncommon service areas- Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and UP East- where Aircel has presence.

Its agreement with TTSL gives it access to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and UP west.

The partnership gives Aircel and TTSL access to most expensive service areas of Delhi and Mumbai, where RCom has permits.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2013, RCom had 36.2 million data customers, including 11.1 million 3G customers.

According to industry sources, only around half of smartphone owners use 3G services and telcos want to increase this number by making customers aware that the technology gives better browsing experience and much faster downloading speeds.

Telcos have spent thousands of crores in buying 3G bandwidth through auctions in 2010, and had to price the services high to recoup the cost, which proved unattractive to cost- sensitive subscribers.

This forced them to reduce tariffs of 3G data plans significantly in order to attract customers.

Usage of 3G services more than doubled in 2013. However, there are still gaps in 3G coverage even in the top 50 towns, according to a Nokia Solutions and Networks report. Data traffic generated by 2G and 3G services combined grew 87 per cent in 2013 driven largely by strong growth in the faster 3G data, the study said.

Courtesy: Mail Today