Bharti Airtel has commenced the North India launch of 3G services starting with Delhi and Jaipur. While the services were launced in Jaipur on March 2, Delhi got the Airtel 3G today.

With Airtel 3G, users can enjopy a range of services including Mobile TV, Video Calls, high-speed internet and Video capabilities on social networks. Enabling fast internet access on-the-go, airtel 3G dongles are also now available for laptop users.

A wide range of live and on-demand TV channels are available on Airtel 3G Mobile TV at an affordable price of Rs 40 for 20 minutes per week. To subscribe, customers can use their mobile phones to visit the ‘3G Zone’ on airtel LIVE, select Mobile TV, simply download and install the application, select their favourite TV content — and start viewing.

Airtel users, who want to avail 3G services, need not to change their SIM cards but need a 3G enabled handset.

“We have covered about 80 percent of the Delhi-NCR. We have overhauled over 1800 towers for better 3G coverage,” said Atul Bindal, president-mobile services, Bharti airtel.

Airtel’s Third Generation services are already in the seven cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Mysore, Manipal, Udipi and Jaipur and will be available in all 13 3G-license circles by March 2011, he added.

To know more or join airtel 3G services – customers can visit www.airtel.in/airtel-3G/, call 12134 (tollfree) or SMS ‘3G HELP’ to 121.

3G is available in 700 cities across the country now, mostly on BSNL’s network.

Reliance Communication offers 3G in more than 10 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Tata Docomo has also started its services in the nine circles where it has spectrum rights. Recently, Aircel provides 3G services in Hyderabad, Cochin, Srinagar,
Chennai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Kolkata, Patna, Guwahati and Bhuwaneshwar.

By March end the private companies are expected to offer 3G services in about 400 major towns and cities across the country.

Telecom industry regulator, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) again extended the deadline for implementation of allocating special number series for telemarketers to 21st of March.

The move to allocate special number series was to empower the users to make an informed choice while picking up a marketing call.

However, the implementation has got delayed thanks to DoT (Department of Telecom) which is yet to allocate any number series for the fixed line.

While a number series starting with 140 has been allocated, it has been reserved for the mobile numbers used by tele-marketers.

But the telecos are saying that it is not possible to provide all the numbers for these call-canters using mobile only, as the call volume from these centres is very high.

The earlier deadline for the implementation for this was 1st March.
Even if DoT allots the number series there would be many technicalities that will need to be completed before the actual implementation happens.

Meanwhile you can keep getting annoyed listening to pesky.

T24, a mobile service brand of Tata Teleservices and Future Group, has now expanded its services in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab.

T24 offers free Talk time on shopping in Future Bazaar retail outlets such as Big Bazaar, Pantaloons, Food Bazaar, Pantaloons, Central, Brand Factory, Home Town, eZone and Aadhar, among others. It also offers discount vouchers to those buying talktime.

With this, the brand has reached 17 circles including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh was the first telecom circle to get the services in June 2010.

“T24 has received tremendous response since its launch in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Shopping, and talking on our mobile phones are among the two favorite activities for all of us in India,” said Mayur Toshniwal, chief executive officer of T24.

“With T24, we have been able to develop a unique customer value proposition that combines these interests of the aspirational Indian. Customers will get shopping benefits on talking and talk-time benefits every time they shop,” Toshniwal added.

T24 tariff plans are similar to those that Tata Docomo and Indicom offer. In addition, customers get rewarded free talk time for every purchase above Rs 350 made at any Future Group shopping outlet.

For example, a T24 customer buying products worth Rs 3,001 at Pantaloons or Central gets Rs 150 worth of free talk time. And a customer spending Rs 2,001 at Big Bazaar gets Rs 84 worth of free talk time.

According to the company, “T24 mobile telephony service will be progressively rolled out across the country in next few months, through Future Group’s retail networks in over 76 cities and 65 rural destinations.”

Customers can recharge their T24 mobile at these stores and also at any Tata Docomo retailer. Future Group retail chains attracted over 250 million customer footfalls in 2009-10.

The service has so far not been started in Delhi where Future Group has a sizeable presence as Tata Docomo doesn’t have spectrum for the circle yet, and the company probably doesn’t want to start service using its CDMA network.