Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited brought 3G services on Tuesday to the masses by introducing a prepaid option for this high-end service at just Rs 300.
Announcing the launch of the pre-paid 3G service, company CMD R S P Sinha said, "MTNL is launching 3G Jadoo Prepaid Services so that customer should be able to avail the latest 3G/3.5G services at an affordable price".
Since pre-paid is the preferred by customers, the 3G service will be available for only Rs 300 with lifetime validity, whereby a customer can make local video calls at Rs 1.8/minute and data download at Rs 3/MB.
In addition, a subscriber can also choose any of the data coupons to avail free data downloads coupled with free video calling to suit ones individual requirement, Sinha said.
Sinha expects the launch of pre-paid 3G services to increase it customer base.
He said the PSU has around 400 subscribers for its recently-launched 3G service and expects 2,00,000 to 3,00,000 users for in the first year of operations.
The company introduced 3G services in Delhi in December and in Mumbai last month.
The state-run telecom operator expects to add new capacity to accommodate 8,00,000 users, he said.
"Now the coverage is in parts of Delhi and Mumbai. We would cover 90 per cent by August," Sinha said. Over 95 per cent of mobile phone users in India use pre-paid services.
A Rs 300 prepaid Jeevan Sathi (Lifetime Trump) card has a talk value of Rs 15 and on 3G calls (local video calls) are charged at Rs 1.80 a minute to another MTNL 3G phone, while for other networks it is Rs 3 a minute.
STD video calls are priced at Rs 3.75 a minute and ISD video calls are charged at Rs 30 a minute. Data download rates are Rs 3 per MB.
The PSU also introduced 3G Data coupons ranging from Rs 99 to Rs 2,500 with slabs at Rs 250, Rs 450 and Rs 750.
Both the PSUs -- MTNL and BSNL -- have started their 3G services while private operators are still waiting for spectrum auction to start 3G services.
