Aircel, Airtel announce iPhone 5 tariff plans ahead of the official launch

While the iPhone 5 is scheduled to be officially introduced in India today, telecom operators Airtel and Aircel have announced their exclusive data plans for the new iOS device. The official India pricing for the iPhone 5 has also been revealed, which is Rs. 45,500 for 16GB model, Rs. 52,500 for 32GB model and Rs. 59,500 for 64GB model.

Bharti Airtel is offering four new voice and data tariff plans for the postpaid users of the iPhone 5. Airtel is giving a 50 percent discount on all its plans. The cheapest Airtel plan starts at Rs. 300 (after a discount of 50 percent) and includes 500 local minutes, 300 local and national SMS and 200MB of 3G data. The Rs. 500 plan includes 900 local minutes, 400 local and national SMS and 500MB of 3G data.

The Rs. 800 plan offers users 1,400 minutes of call 500 local and national SMS and time,1.2GB of 3G data, while the most expensive Rs. 1,000 plan has 1,500 minutes local time, 600 local and national SMS, and 3GB 3G data. Airtel is offering similar data plans for the prepaid customers as well.

Check out Airtel's iPhone 5 tariff plans for your circle here.

Airtel's tariff plans for the iPhone 5

Aircel has also announced its exclusive data plans for the iPhone 5. The telecom operator claims to offer a range of usage plans giving a benefit of more than Rs. 20,000 annually with the iPhone 5.

Postpaid users of Aircel are offered a special plan which includes benefits such as no monthly rental and free 1GB data usage, 500 minutes of voice calls, and 500 SMS per month. After going past the free data and voice limits, users will be charged as per regular tariff rates. There is no rental fee on these plans.

After 12 months, the customer has to pay only Rs. 399 per month month to continue getting these benefits.

Aircel will soon launch a series of value-based prepaid plans, starting at just Rs. 399, with bundled data and SMS pack, aimed its prepaid customers. Aircel’s iPhone customers will receive their devices with pre-loaded settings for the unlimited Internet access. There's also an option of a EMI for 12 months through the company's stores.

Why iPhone 3GS is a better buy than Rs. 10K Android smartphones

Aircel has lowered the price on the iPhone 3GS to Rs 9,999, making it a really attractive option. Even when you add the Rs. 3,000 advance rental it's probably the cheapest iPhone in the world.

The iPhone 3GS is a pretty capable phone, even if it may feel two, soon to be three, generations old. The hardware specs are in line with what most current-generation Android smartphones at the price point offer, though some do beat the 3GS on RAM and camera megapixel count.

The best part about the iPhone 3GS is that it will run the latest version of iOS the day iOS 6 releases. Contrast that with the scenario in the Android world, where even smartphones costing Rs. 30,000 or more had to wait for months before they got Android 4.0. And just as some of them were finally getting ready to receive Ice Cream Sandwich, Google went ahead and released Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The wait begins all over again.

It's true that iOS 5 on iPhone 3GS feels a little bit sluggish. However reports indicate that Apple has made performance improvements in iOS 6 and it actually runs faster on iPhone 3GS than iOS 5.

A note of caution though. Performance in beta versions is just an indication of how things are going to turn out to be. The final iOS 6 version may end up performing worse (or better) than the beta, so you may be well advised to wait until iOS 6 comes to get a real idea as far as iOS 6 performance on iPhone 3GS is concerned. Still, the early signs are good if you are an existing iPhone 3GS user or looking to buy one.

iPhone 3GS users on iOS 6 will enjoy new features like updated Maps, Shared Photo Streams and Passbook. Also included is ability to decline incoming calls calls with text messages or a "remind me later" option, that will remind you to call back the person later. Pretty handy.

iOS 6 also includes improvements to the mail and browsing experience, which will be extended to iPhone 3GS.

However, there are some iOS 6 features that iPhone 3GS will not receive. These are flyover and turn-by-turn navigation in Maps, the improved Siri (which iPhone 4 will not get either) and FaceTime (the 3GS has no front-camera).

While on Maps, we would love to be surprised, but we doubt India will get turn-by-turn navigation (at least initially), so that isn't much of a loss in itself. In any case, there are plenty of third-party apps that you can use to fill that gap.

Other features that the iPhone 3GS will not get are Offline Reading List, and accessibility features that require Made for iPhone hearing aids, which are supported only by iPhone 4 and above.

Overall, there are more hits than misses as far as iOS 6 on iPhone 3GS is concerned, and it boast of running the latest OS version for another year. A claim that can be made by only a handful devices in the Android world.

Aircel selling the iPhone 3GS for Rs. 9,999

People who have wanted an iPhone but could never afford it can now rejoice. Telecom company Aircel is now offering the iPhone 3GS for a reasonable price of Rs. 9,999.

To avail of the deal, customers have to pay an advance rental of Rs. 3,000 apart from the cost of the phone, which will offer them unlimited 3G connectivity for 12 months within 3G circles. The fair usage policy applies here, which downgrades the internet speed to 128 kbps after using up 2 GB of data. In places where only 2G network is available, users will get 1,000 minutes of local and STD calls, 2,500 local and national SMS, and an unlimited 2G data plan for 6 months.

The plan is available for only postpaid users. The plan seems more attractive for people living in Aircel’s 3G circles. The 2G offer seems to be a decent deal.

Aircel selling the iPhone 3GS at Rs. 9,999

If you are interested in buying a smartphone on a tight budget, this offer seems like a great deal. The unlimited 2G and 3G plans would interest many people who use the Internet on their phones a lot. Aircel has some of the cheapest 3G plans in the country. So even after the duration for which the benefits of the offer are avaialble is over, you can still get a decent internet plan for your phone. Though the iPhone 3GS may be more or less obsolete, after the release of the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and the upcoming release of the iPhone 5, the phone is still one of the best phones one can get at this price.

Here are the specs for the iPhone 3GS:

• 3.5-inch capacitive TFT touch screen, with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP only for headsets
• GPS with A-GPS support
• 3.15 megapixel camera with video recording at 30 fps
• 8 GB, 16 GB or 32 GB internal memory, depending on the model
• 256 MB of RAM

The iPhone 3GS runs on the Cortex A8 processor clocked at 600 MHz. It is upgradeable to iOS 5.1 officially, and on the list of supported devices for the upcoming iOS 6. Developers who have tried out the beta builds of the latest version of iOS report that the phone works smoothly with it.

Earlier, the iPhone 3GS was available from Airtel and Aircel for Rs. 19,990.

Last July Aircel and Airtel launched the 8GB version of the iPhone 3GS with money back offers for Rs. 19,999 before it went on sale from retailers across India.

Aircel iPhone 3GS Postpaid Advance rental Plan

Benefits	3G circles	2G Circles
Free minutes/month (Local+National)	NA	1000 mins (Local+STD)
Free data/month	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free SMS/month	NA	2500 (L+N)
Validity	12 months	6 months
Device cost	Rs. 9999	Rs. 9999
Advance rental	Rs. 3000	Rs. 3000
Total Cost	Rs. 12,999	Rs. 12,999

In 3G (speeds up to 3.6 Mbps) circles, after 2GB speed would be throttled to 128 kbps. The iPhone 3GS is available from Aircel Stores. They have not announced any prepaid plans yet.

Aircel, Huawei complete LTE field trial in India

NEW DELHI: Telecom operator Aircel and telecom equipment maker Huawei announced to complete field trial of LTE-TDD technology in combination with two existing wireless technology namely GSM and UMTS using chipset from Qualcomm.

"Aircel is pleased to be the first telecom service provider to have successfully experienced LTE-TDD functionality using multimode devices based on Qualcomm chipset in our GSM,UMTS, LTE-TDD network provided by Huawei at Hyderabad," Mallikarjun Rao, CTO of Aircel said.

Aircel is a pan India operator. It has 3G spectrum in 13 circles and BWA spectrum in eight circles.

GSM, UMTS and TDD LTE come under category of 2G, 3G and 4G technology, respectively.

Huawei spokesperson told PTI that during trial peak data transfer speed of 245 megabyte per second during was achieved.

"The peak rate was achieved both in fixed and mobile condition of device moving at speed between 3 to 5 kilometer per hour," Suresh Vaidyanathan, spokesperson, Huawei India said.

This means that a person moving at speed of 3 to 5 km per hour can download content of compact disc like a bollywood movie in 3 seconds. A compact disc can generally store 700 to 800 megabyte of data.

After completion of this trial, Huawei said it is now ready to deploy commercial LTE-TDD network for GSM and UMTS mobile operators for mobile broadband in India.

"This first inter operability test on an existing UMTS network will stimulate the mobile broadband market in India, and show the way forward for the LTE industry," Deng Taihua, the president of Huawei's WiMAX, TD-SCDMA and LTE-TDD product line.

In India, most telecom operators have indicated to adopt Long Term Evaluation (LTE) Technology for rolling out Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) services.

Though FDD version of LTE is available in some countries, Indian telecom operators for some technical reason can only deploy Time Division Duplex (TDD) version of LTE.

However, non-availability of TDD LTE chipsets and equipments commercially had kept roll-out of BWA services by private telecom companies on hold in the country, even though BWA spectrum was allocated to companies in October, 2010.

Spectranet partners Aircel To provide high-speed Internet access to Aircel customers

Spectranet on Monday said it has partnered Aircel to offer high-speed Internet access to the latter's customers on Wi-Fi. The company also announced plans to invest Rs.500 crore over the next five years to expand its services across 50,000 hot-spots and reach over 50-lakh households across the country.

Spectranet, as preferred partner of Aircel, will deploy and manage core as well as access service infrastructure for Wi-Fi services enabling seamless authentication solution for both post-paid and pre-paid subscribers. This service will enable seamless Internet access for Aircel subscribers across Aircel GSM/3G network and Spectranet Wi-Fi network.

According to Spectranet Managing Director Udit Mehrotra, “We have deployed Wi-Fi network at over 1,000 hot-spots across six major cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad — and plan to add three more cities by this year-end. In the next five years, we will reach 40 cities…we are building India's largest Wi-Fi network across commercial and residential areas and see tremendous growth opportunity in this segment.”

Pointing out that it was the first-ever deployment of 2G and 3G mobile data offload to Wi-Fi within India, Mr. Mehrotra said: “Our Wi-Fi service can be accessed by Aircel subscribers on all kinds of Wi-Fi enabled devices, including mobile phones, laptops and tablets.

Our mobile data offload platform enables seamless traffic handover between GSM and Wi-Fi networks.

Mr. Mehrotra further said that Spectranet was building its own optical fibre network. “We have so far laid over 2,000 route km of optic cable and plan to expand it to 6,000 km. We are building our own fibre infrastructure because we believe the data requirement is only going to go up from this point. In India, not only are we looking at a rapid increase in penetration but we are also looking at a rapid increase in the usage per person or usage per household,” he added.

Ericsson Bags Aircel’s 3G Network Contract

AIRCEL, India’s leading mobile operator (part of Maxis Communications, Malaysia), has awarded a contract to Ericsson to rolls out its 3G/HSPA network across six out of its 13 circles or geographic market areas.

The six Aircel circles wherein Ericsson provides 3G technology in are, Tamil Nadu, Bihar -Jharkhand, Orissa, Jammu Kashmir, North East and Assam .These six circles currently serve more than 100 million subscribers and Ericsson will be Aircel’s largest partner for 3G implementation.

Under the agreement with Aircel, Ericsson will provide core, radio and transmission network equipment as well as related services such as network rollout, network technology and consulting, radio network optimization and support services.

The mobile broadband network will include the latest multi-standard radio base station, RBS6000, and the MSC Server Blade Cluster, which will drastically boost the capacity of the network and evolve it into an IP network. The framework contract will be implemented from 2010 to 2012. Deliveries and deployment are underway. Aircel and Ericsson made the first successful 3G call last week in Chennai and Coimbatore .

Gurdeep Singh, COO of Aircel says: “For many people in India connected for the first time, 3G mobile broadband will bring completely new types of services and benefits. We are confident that with this partnership, we will benefit from Ericsson’s global expertise of 3G deployments, and will be able to offer our customers a world-class 3G experience.

Gowton Achaibar, head of Ericsson India , says: “We are extremely excited to partner with Aircel for the implementation of its 3G network. We foresee 3G brings economic advantages and increased social interaction in the country. With the advent of 3G, the mobile phone will not just be about convenience and satisfying a basic need for communication; it will also provide access to services such as healthcare, education and information, supporting people’s livelihoods.”

Aircel to roll out 3G services by early January

New Delhi: Telecom service provider Aircel on Friday said it is planning to launch 3G services in the country by early January next year.
“We will roll-out 3G services by early January 2011,” Aircel chief operating officer Gurdeep Singh told reporters here.
Aircel had bagged 3G spectrum in 13 out of the 22 telecom circles. Recently, Aircel had given contract for rolling out 3G network infrastructure to equipment maker Ericsson in six circles.
Other telcos, who got 3G spectrum, like Tata Docomo, the GSM arm of Tata Teleservices had already launched the services. Besides, Tata, Airtel has also announced to launch its 3G services by the end of this year.
On the regulatory environment, Singh said that Aircel will comply with all government regulations. Recently, Trai is understood to have recommended to the telecom department that licences of Aircel in some circles should be cancelled as it had failed to meet the roll-out obligations.
Aircel, which has a pan-India operation with a subscriber base of over 48 million, said that it has not received any communication from the telecom regulator Trai or the telecom department on the subject.