Tata docomo prices 3G services at up to INR 2,000 a month



Tata Teleservices Ltd. said Tuesday it will price its third generation, or 3G, mobile telephony services in the price band of INR200-INR2,000 a month, effective Nov. 10.

The Tata group company is also in talks with other operators to share networks in other service areas, Deepak Gulati, executive president of the mobility business division, told reporters.

Earlier this year the company got 3G bandwidth for nine of India's 22 service areas through a government auction.

Gulati said the company, which has already partnered with state-run companies Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., is testing networks to offer its services to customers in the other areas.

Tata Teleservices now has 3G services across 25 towns in its nine service areas. It began its roll out on Nov. 5 and expects this to be completed by the end of December.

All the offerings will have voice and data services, and the company will charge customers on a per-second pulse, Gulati said.

Tata Teleservices, in which Japanese cellular company NTT DoCoMo Inc. holds 26%, also plans in the next few months to introduce enhanced 3G services of the Japanese firm, including enterprise solutions.