We gonna pay through our noses for 3G
Bharti Airtel has warned us that 3G mobile services will not be friendly to the end-user pockets, especially for subscribers in metros, as service providers shelled out a pretty handsome amount for the spectrum.
The amount for spectrum that has been charged for the metros Delhi and Mumbai is close to Rs 3,500 crore each. Rs 700-900 per month is the cost an end-user will have to bear if the operator has to just break-even after the input and licensing costs, mentioned Sunil Mittal, Chairman and MD of Bharti Airtel. I do not even want to think how much it would cost post the margin for the operators.
Bharti Airtel won 13 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, paying Rs 12,295.46 crore, the highest among service providers.
The company could not achieve the objective of a pan-India 3G foot print as the prices rose beyond a reasonable level due to various factors like the auction format, a severe shortage of spectrum and also ensuing policy uncertainty, it had said.
And what’s next 4G?
Tags: 3G, auction, bharti airtel, expensive, spectrum, sunil mittal