Speaking to Economic Times , Sunil Mittal , Chairman of India’s leading private Mobile operator Airtel said that 3G services will not be cheap and will cost a minimum of Rs.700-900 a month citing Delhi and Mumbai as examples.
“Take the example of Delhi itself, or Mumbai. The amount for spectrum that has been charged is close to Rs 3,500 crore each… Just to recover license fees and input cost, it works out to be Rs 700-900 per month,” Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal said.
The operators have paid thousands of crores towards 3G License fees and many operators have even taken long term loans from Banks to pay for the spectrum. It’s quite natural that they would try to recover at least a significant portion of the same from initial operations.
We expect 3G charges to be high initially just like calling charges were ridiculously expensive in the early days of the telecom revolution. If you remember correctly , we were once paying for even incoming calls. Its free in India now but still in several countries incoming calls are charged.
Are you willing to fork out Rs.700 a month for 3G connectivity in addition to your normal mobile bill ?