Aircel becomes the fourth telco to slash 3G tariffs as the industry looks towards raising data usage to shore up revenues.
The fifth largest telecom company by subscribers said its '3G Aircel Pocket Internet Smart' data cards aimed at the youth, allowed high-speed internet access at prices that were same as 2G.
Making unlimited 3G data usage its USP, Aircel introduced plans beginning from 8 a day to 999 a month. The lowest costing plan allows internet usage at 3.6 Mbps speed up to 50 MB of data download while the plan on the higher side gives speeds up to 7.2 Mbps for downloading 10 GB of data. After reaching the limits, speed for every plan reduces to 128 Kbps.
The telco said its plans were available in all 13 circles where it has 3G operations and could seamlessly work on 2G and 3G devices. "The plan is an Industry first with an aim to offer possibilities through the power of Internet at an extremely affordable price and thus empower the youth," said Aircel's marketing head Anupam Vasudev.
Over the last month, leading mobile phone companies slashed 3G tariff plans. Bharti Airtel set the trend by cutting tariff plans for prepaid subscribers to 10 a day giving internet access for 30 minutes. High-speed 3G internet service can be bought starting from 45 for 150 MB for seven days to 1,500 for 10 GB for of 30 days.
Soon after, Idea cut 3G tariffs by up to 70% while the Indian arm of British telco Vodafone Plc pruned monthly rentals on its 3G promotional packs by a peak 33%.
Ericsson: 3G, 4G networks to blanket most of the world by 2017 - ZDNet
Approximately 85 percent of the world’s population will be covered with high-speed mobile internet by 2017, according to Ericsson’s second Traffic and Market Report published on Tuesday.
That estimate specifically pertains to 3G coverage as Ericsson estimates there will be close to nine billion mobile subscriptions in the next five years, up from six billion at the end of 2011. Ericsson also attributes this increase to a rise in M2M device support and subscriptions as well.
Going hand-in-hand with those increases, Ericsson researchers also point out that just about everything is going mobile these days thanks both to the evolution of the cloud as well as consumer demand for having Internet access just about anywhere at anytime. Thus, that’s putting pressure on the tech world to meet those demands as rapidly as possible.
Douglas Gilstrap, senior vice president and head of Ericsson’s Strategy unit, added in the report that “people see access to the internet as a prerequisite for any device,” whether it be a smartphone or a machine-to-machine platform.
This mindset results in growing demand for mobile broadband and increased data traffic. Operators recognize this business opportunity and are aiming to facilitate this growth and provide good user experience with fast data speeds through high capacity networks. Today, around 75% of the HSPA networks worldwide have been upgraded to a peak speed of 7.2 Mbps or above and around 40% has been upgraded to 21 Mbps.
So 4G networks will figure in too. Ericsson researchers estimate that at least 50 percent of the globe will be covered by 4G in 2017 with mobile broadband subscriptions expected to hit five billion that year — up fivefold from 2011. LTE/4G networks will be given a more significant boost from smartphone subscriptions, which are predicted to topple 3 billion by 2017, an incredible jump from 700 million in 2011.
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