Airtel launches 3G service; Tariff Plans

For those who’ve been waiting for this to happen, Airtel finally managed to roll out its 3G service, starting with Bengaluru (Bangalore) first. The number One mobile operator in the country in terms of subscribers, is 3 rd in the list of private operators who rolled out 3G services (Tata Docomo and Reliance are the first two).

Looking at the plans, you clearly get the feeling that these are the costliest 3G data plans that you may have seen when compared to other players. But then, you have to remember that Airtel was the one who spent the largest amount of money to get 3G license in key competitive circles.

The Data plans start from as less as Rs.9 and go up to Rs.750.

Sachet Plan Rs.9 – Daily plan – 10MB Data (this expires on the same day of recharge, 11.59PM)

Sachet Plan Rs.60 – 3 Days validity – 65MB Data

Standard Plan Rs.103 – 30 days validity – 100MB Data

Standard Plan Rs.200 – 30 days validity – 250 MB Data

Standard Plan Rs.450 – 30 days validity – 600 MB Data

Standard Plan Rs.750 – 30 days validity – 2GB Data

For all the above plans, post free data, normal 2G browsing charges of 30p/20KB will apply.

There is another interesting plan called FlexiShield Plan for Rs.675 that gives 1.25GB of free data. But where this plan proves to be different (for good) is after the free usage, browsing will be charged at 1ps/100KB, which is roughly 10ps/MB. You can browse with this charge virtually for Unlimited data, so long as you don’t go beyond Rs.2000 maximum shield amount.

Without any data plan, 3G default browsing charge is fixed at 30p/20KB (remember Airtel has increased Mobile Office tariff recently, even for 2G).

Video calls will be charged at 5ps/sec. This applies for local, STD and while on Roaming (on Airtel 3G network only).

You may also look at what Airtel 3G Speed looks like or compare these with Tata Docomo 3G plans and Reliance 3G Plans.