Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Lock Pan-India 3G Service Agreement

It’s official now. According to the reports, India’s premier mobile service providers – Vodafone Essar, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have gone full throttle with their plans of rolling out revolutionary 3G Roaming services in the country, on a massive scale. Interestingly, the 3G Roaming services are being planned not only on a massive scale as far as the reach is concerned, but also in a manner that is not too heavy on the pockets of the average Indian.

Signing on the dotted line of the ICRA (Intra – circle roaming arrangements) agreement, the leading telecom trio has agreed to roll-out the 3G services by using each other’s networks. Vodafone Essar has got into what it calls a bilateral agreement with Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular to bring forth to the customers 3G services, across major demographics. For example, Bharti Airtel that has a considerably widespread presence in the country doesn’t possess a 3G presence in Gujarat. A void, it hopes to wipe out with its agreement with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular.

Let's hope the prices drop

Each of these 3 telecom giants have bagged 3G licenses in various parts of the country. Bharti Airtel owns 3G licenses for Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (west region), West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, the North East, and Jammu and Kashmir. Vodafone Essar, on the other hand has 3G licenses for Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (east region) and West Bengal and Idea Cellular has 3G licenses for Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, UP (East) UP (West), Punjab, Haryana and Kerala.

It was only recently that these mobile service providers brought this service down to India.