After much wait and several delays (From December 2008 end launch to February to April end and now finally mid May), MTNL will finally launch its 3G service ‘Jadoo’ in Mumbai today.
MTNL’s Chairman and Managing Director R.S.P Sinha will launch the 3G service at south Mumbai’s five star Hotel Taj President. To launch the 3G service in Mumbai, MTNL has already set up 720 base transceiver stations in the Mumbai Circle.
This comes as good news for MTNL mobile users who did not succumb to switching over to a private operator. While MTNL has not revealed the pricing of the service yet, it is certain that services such as Video calling, Video conferencing, and Rich Multimedia experience, Video on demand, Mobile Internet speeds up to 7 mbps and Mobile TV will now be accessible to users.
While 3G service was launched in Delhi in December 2008 followed by the launch of the service in Agra, Dehradun, Jammu, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Lucknow, Shimla, Patna, Ranchi, Haldia, and Durgapur by BSNL soon after, Mumbai citizens had to endure the wait.
MTNL Delhi’s tariff plan is as follows:
We checked the Mumbai MTNL website and found absolutely no mention of the launch anywhere on the site. Shocking and disheartening! While we hope that the service is a lot better than their external communication, our experience tells us that we should adopt a wait and watch policy before we wax eloquent about the service, keeping in view their very ‘sarkari’ manner of functioning!