BSNL's 3G service in November

The services were expected to be launched in March this year, but the lauch has been postponed several times, due to various reasons related to equipment testing.
A senior official at BSNL said that the new 3G equipment has been entirely supplied by the vendor Huawei, and it is currently under validation.

“All the new equipment have to pass validation tests. We are trying to force them to complete by early November,” he said.
The basic equipment for 2G services has been supplied by Nortel and Motorola, under a previous agreement.

Huawei won the bid for supplying 3G equipment, and the process of integrating both networks for seamless connectivity is taking time. The company is all set for the launch, with BSNL staff already being trained under various modules.

Tariff plan
The tariff plan is ready, but the company is being forced to wait till all validation tests are completed.

Officials from BSNL’s Karnataka Telecom Circle say that they are being cautious after the launch in Delhi, and have learnt from their mistakes.

“Our tariff plans are already in place because it has already been introduced in the North and East zone, but we now know that it would be disastrous to attempt tests once the launch has taken place. So we do not want to do anything piecemeal, and want to launch the system and tariff package at one go,” another official working on 3G services said.
Apart from targeting corporate companies for its voice, video and wireless data services, BSNL is also banking on individual cell phone subscribers to use 3G for downloading songs and videos.

The company is also looking forward to strengthening internet connections in remote areas through the new services.
The services will be launched first in Bangalore, and then in Mangalore, Mysore and Hubli.