April 5: Bharti Airtel Ltd., on Tuesday said that it is in talks with the other telecom service providers for collaborations in offering nationwide third-generation (3G) telecom services. The telecom major has won 3G radio spectrum, required for providing telecom services, in 13 of the total 22 telecom circles in the country through an auction held last year for Rs 12,295 crore. The tie-up would be similar to the roaming pact that telecom companies have had for the 2G roaming and would help its customers to access services even while roaming across the country.
“We are in a dialogue with other players in the industry [who have 3G spectrum in the circles, where Airtel does not have spectrum] to ensure that we have a presence across all circles,” said Mr Atul Bindal, the president of mobile services at Bharti Airtel, on Tuesday. The company has 20 lakh customers using its 3G services. Mr Bindal was in the city to launch the company’s 3G services in Hyderabad — the 22nd city in the country to have Airtel 3G services.
The company has also launched high definition gaming nationwide on Tuesday for its customers. The move is seen as an attempt to woo young customers “We have already tied up game developers to enable them to sell their games at our app store,” Mr Bindal said. He said that m-entertainment, m-commerce and m-health are the prime focus areas in the next few years to increase its business from non-voice services, which currently contribute 13.5 per cent of its total revenues.
While Airtel is already present in m-entertainment and m-commerce space, it is in talks with healthcare firms to offer a mobile health platform using 3G services. “Currently, we are piloting our health service product. We are conducting extensive tests as we want the product absolutely right,” he said.