With the penetration of 3G-enabled mobile phones at just 8-10 per cent, Airtel is on the verge of closing talks with a few mobile handset manufacturers to bring down handset prices to sub-$100 (or about Rs 4,500).

“We see that it (price) is a barrier to the spread of 3G. We think that by to bringing that down, we could give a boost to the spread of 3G. We further foresee a breakthrough when it breaches the $50-mark,” Mr Atul Mohan Bindal, President (Mobile Services), Airtel, told Business Line .

However, Mr Atul, who was here in connection with launch of 3G services in Hyderabad on Tuesday, refused to divulge the names of the companies it was talking to. Airtel, which launched 3G services last month, has 20 lakh subscribers in the third-generation telecom network.

“By the end of 2012, we will touch 500 towns across the country,” he said.

Gaming focus

Airtel, which has covered 21 cities with 3G services, has introduced 25 high-definition games on its 3G platform. “Gaming is a niche application. We have exposure to best practices from Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. We need to bring in many more games from elsewhere in the world,” he said.

Quoting an estimate, he said the mobile gaming market was at 0.5 billion.

“We see a latent hunger for data. 3G is going to meet that demand. We can see an eruption in (3G-ready) smart-phones, content and application developers. Our appstore (application store) has registered 40 million downloads. We are not a device-centric application provider,” he said.

Mr Atul said non-voice revenues for the company stood at 13.5 per cent as against an average of 31-32 per cent in a mature market such as Europe. “The key is 3G and we expect that the contribution from non-voice could grow significantly. The transition from 3G to 4G will happen much faster,” he said.

Enterprise focus

As it targeted the 3G subscriber base, the company was also planning to increase its share from the enterprise segment. The segment contributed Rs 1,050 crore for the quarter ended December 2010. “With a host of services such as fixed landline, we offer packaged services to this segment. We expect a higher contribution from the segment,” he said.

“We will be extending 3G services to other key locations such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur and Warangal in the next few weeks,” he said.

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