Vodafone Essar announces launching 3G services in Q1 2011

Vodafone Essar, India's third-largest mobile operator by subscribers today said that it will launch the third-generation (3G) services in the January-March quarter of 2011 in all the nine circles in which the company has won spectrum.

Mumbai-based Vodafone Essar will launch its 3G services initially in Mumbai and Delhi and then roll out the services in a phased manner to the other seven circles in which the company has won the 3G spectrum.

Marten Pieters, the company's managing director told reporters today in Mumbai, "We will go for good coverage and that we will launch city by city in the first quarter of the next year."

Vodafone Essar, which is 67-per cent owned by the Vodafone Group of the UK and the remaining by India's Essar group, plans to complete rolling out 3G services in all the nine circles by the end of the first quarter of 2011.

Vodafone Essar, which has secured 3G spectrum in 9 circles in the May 2010 3G auctions for Rs11,617 crore, plans to spend up to Rs2,211 crore within two years on its 3G networks.

The company has already selected Nokia Siemens Networks to supply, implement and manage its 3G network in six of the nine circles – Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh (East), rest of West Bengal and Haryana – where it secured 3G spectrum.