State-owned PSU Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), on Friday launched third-generation (3G) mobile services

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in 11 cities.

This launch in 11 cities followed after the telecom operator launched its 3G services in Chennai last Sunday.

The operator had launched the services in Agra, Ambala, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Dehradoon, Shimla, Lucknow, Ranchi, Durgapur, Haldia, Patna and soft launch in Jammu. BSNL announced its tariff plans for 3G mobile services under pre-paid and post-paid voice, video and data plans. The voice call will be available for 10 paisa per minute under full value 1000 plan and local SMS at 10 paisa per SMS under Super 1,350 plan. Video calls starting with Re1 under unlimited 2,500 plan and Rs 2 for STD video calls.

Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director BSNL said that value added services like mobile television, mobile broadband and subsequent services like mobile commerce will help to save cost and time for the common man which will ultimately drive the overall economy of this country.

BSNL has invested Rs 2,700 crore to make 3G services available to the consumers of this country. BSNL has plans to cover all district headquarters and important commercial towns in the first phase and will be subsequently launched in other cities and towns. “Most developed country of the world by making 3G services available to the citizens of this country and we hope this will help us in bridging the urban-rural digital divide,” Goyal said.

“This helps us in bridging the urban-rural digital divide and makes 3G a reality in India. 3G will ultimately facilitate socio-economic development of the masses through applications such as Telemedicine, e-education and e-governance. This roll out is a great step towards 3G as an enabler for India to meet its target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010,” Gowton Achaibar, president, Ericsson India said.