The telecom industry cannot afford to repeat a 2G-like price war in the 3G realm. “Low-price regime is not going to help any one. I don't think telecom players would go for a price war as they unveil 3G services,” Mr Ambrish P. Jain, Deputy Managing Director of Idea Cellular, said.

Mr Jain, who was here to launch 3G mobile and mobile broadband (NetSetter) services in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, said there could be some euphoria in the beginning when several companies launch new generation telecom services.

Idea's 3G services, which were launched two weeks ago, covered Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (West), UP (East) and Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.

The company plans to add 10 towns a day in the next one year to have 3,700 towns in the 3G network by March 31, 2012. It has invested Rs 10,000 crore in its 3G initiative, including Rs 5,800 crore on licences.

Handset tie-ups

Keeping in view the likely migration from its existing nine crore 2G subscribers, Idea is in talks with handset manufacturers to offer relevant plans for upgrades. Mr Jain said 3G would help telecom companies improve their revenue avenues from data services. “At present, we register one of the lowest ARPUs (average revenue per user) from data services. This will certainly change as we move towards 3G,” he said.

At present 10 per cent of Idea's nine crore subscribers are using 3G handsets. The company expects these to be the early adopters. In order to attract them, it announced free access to video conference, mobile TV, application malls and video-on-demand till the month-end.

Brand ambassador

In a deviation from its policy of using Abhishek Bachchan as its brand ambassador for its regional markets, the company chose popular film actor Mahesh Babu to endorse its 3G services. It is likely to pick local celebrities in other markets as well.

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