Aircel ready for 3G launch in Chennai

Cellular Operater Aircel has unveiled 3G technology in Chennai with the union government asking existing service providers to conduct trials in specific cities.Aircel, in collaboration with Chinese telecom major ZTE Corp., has conducted the trial of this technology for three weeks in the city.ZTE has the capability to mix 2G and 3G technology in one network.

The Chinese telecom giant is also researching R5 and R6 technologies (SoftSwitch-based control system of the commercial next generation core networks), which will comprise the 4G telephone services in future.High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) services such as downloading of large volume of business data and streaming movies online at speeds of 3.3 MB per second have also been tested in India, for both computers and mobile handsets, using ZTE cards.

The services to be made available are Internet access, mobile television, mobile video conferencing, video phone and voice and data services through the same equipment."We will be able to offer 3G mobile services upon necessary government clearance in a couple of months," said Chinmay Mitra, Aircel group's chief technology officer.As of now 3G enabled handsets are expensive—eg. the 3G-enabled Nokia 6680 costs about Rs. 25,000. According to experts once the 3G technology comes in, there will be more demand and handset costs will reduce.

Aircel maintains that the core network and switching is in place to go 3G for its subscribers in a few months.Aircel has also roped in Ericsson to provide its media gateway and servers and is also partner it for other telecom technology.The 3G trials are taking place in Chennai, Guwahati, Coimbatore and Bhubaneswar. Chennai and Coimbatore will complete trial by March 31