While 3G will initially become a big phenomenon in large cities, the true push will ultimately come from the rural and semi-urban areas, said Mr Atul Mohan Bindal, President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Speaking to Business Line after launching Airtel's 3G services in Karnataka, he said that laptop and PC penetration in India are still low, and even TV penetration is not very high in the country. “Many users will use the Internet for the first time on a mobile device,” he pointed out.

Mr Bindal, however, said that this would take a while. “Initially, rural areas will use 2G and 2.5G and later shift to 3G. But urban areas will start using 3G right away.”

Key city

According to Mr Bindal, Karnataka was chosen because of its 1.5 crore Airtel users. “You could say that each house in Karnataka has at least one Airtel connection and we have a market share of 50 per cent here. That is why Karnataka was a key city for the launch,” he said.

Another driver for 3G could be mobile number portability (MNP). “During the pilot project in Haryana, Airtel gained,” he pointed out.

He said that there was a possibility that non-Airtel customers who wanted 3G may switch to Airtel using MNP to get 3G features.

Cap on bill

Airtel, which has spent over Rs 12,000 crore on its 3G infrastructure, wants to target over 1,500 towns and cities with 3G by March 2012.

The company has announced various plans for 3G, including “sachet” plans costing as low as Rs 10 for experimental users.

To prevent “bill shock” for heavy users, Airtel has a feature called Flexi-shield, which puts a user-defined upper cap on bills. Airtel has also launched a calculator on its site to help users determine their usage rate.

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