bharti airtel, India’s largest telecommunications company, today announced the launch of its 3G service in India - bringing the airtel internet experience on 3G first to Karnataka - its largest circle by revenue market share. airtel is targeting to launch in all 13 3G license circles by March 2011. airtel introduces easy-to-understand intuitive 3G tariffs with personalised data usage limits. airtel 3G customers will be empowered to manage their 3G data usage alert and prevent ‘bill shock’ with proactive, personalized and timely data usage alerts.

Announcing this, Mr. Sanjay Kapoor, CEO - bharti airtel Ltd (India & South Asia) said, "It is indeed the start of a new era when 3G services in India roll out on airtel's network. World over ‘Data traffic’ on the back of high speed internet and use of social networking has already exceeded the ‘Voice traffic’. India is ushering in the domain - though later than most of the world - but no doubt we will catch up at a much faster speed. 3G is much more than a technology migration - it is a transformational shift - and airtel's focus would be to bring to its customers an enriched user experience on the back of a world class delivery network. I welcome all 745 million mobile customers of the country to be a part of this journey with airtel!"

airtel’s 3G services, delivered on a state-of-the-art high speed HSPA network, usher in a new era of unique life enriching services in entertainment, utility, commerce and health – all now on the customer’s mobile phone. The airtel internet on 3G gives customers the power of higher speeds to enjoy multimedia services, high speed mobile broadband and internet access with the ability to view videos on your mobile phone, make video calls, watch live TV, access high speed internet and enjoy live streaming at never before speeds.

The launch of its 3G services is a key milestone in bharti airtel’s vision to play a leading role in delivering the power of the mobile internet to an increasing number of people in India. With the mobile industry across the world expecting to connect 2.4 billion people to the internet over the next five years, most for the first time, it is incumbent upon service providers to bring all the ecosystem players together in a cohesive manner - handset manufacturers, equipment vendors, application developers and even consumers – to scale up the penetration for 3G services in the country.

Keeping the focus on the user experience and relevant services, airtel’s 3G plans are personalised and simple to understand:

• Time-based plans for light users of data - where usage and billing will be by hour.
• Flexi-shield plans for heavy users of data - where usage and billing will be capped.

To select the 3G plan best suited for them, customers can analyse their current internet data usage – on their mobile phone or tablet or laptop by using the airtel ‘internet usage calculator’ on www.airtel.in/airtel-3G/

To know more or join airtel 3G services, customers can visit www.airtel.in/airtel-3G/, call the Toll Free Helpline 12134 or SMS ‘3G HELP’ to 121.
About bharti airtel limited: bharti airtel limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. The company offers mobile voice & data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey telecom solutions for enterprises and national & international long distance services to carriers. Bharti airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by BusinessWeek. bharti airtel had over 205 million customers across its operations at the end of December 2010. To know more visit www.airtel.in