Now that we have the provisional winners of 3G licences in different circles, mobile phone users can check whether their existing service provider can go 3G or not.

If you are an Idea Cellular user in Delhi and own, or plan to own, a 3G handset, you will have to chuck your plan or switch to the services of Vodafone Essar, Bharti Airtel or Reliance Telecom.

Delhi-based customers of Tata Teleservices and Mumbai-based customers of Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices will face the same situation. If you are in Gujarat, you will miss the 3G bandwagon if you are with Airtel or Reliance. In Andhra Pradesh, Vodafone, Reliance and Tata customers will not have 3G access.

Users of MTNL’s cellular services in Mumbai and Delhi, and BSNL’s cellular services in the rest of the country will not be affected as long as MTNL and BSNL pay the price private cellular service operators have to pay as per the department of telecom’s provisional 3G licences list.

Users of losers in the 3G race will be able to avail of 3G services through their existing operators only if the operator has a roaming tie-up with 3G operators.

“But this will be at a fairly high cost,” said Mahesh Uppal, director in Comfirst, and a

telecom regulatory expert.

Another telecom analyst, who did not wish to be named, said, “Why will I stick to my parent network operator for 3G services if it does not have the licence, especially when I see other operators offering me 3G service.”

As a consumer, you can expect an overdose of advertising from winners in each circle. But do remember that they have had to bid very aggressively to win the licences and read the fine print on prices very carefully before switching to a 3G operator or upgrading from 2G to 3G with the same operator.