Due to Poor Response in Delhi MTNL's Delays Mumbai 3G Launch

State-owned telecom operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) Friday said it has postponed the launch of its third generation (3G) mobile services, Jadoo, in Mumbai to May.

The response to MTNL's 3G services in Delhi has been lukewarm, forcing the company to delay the launch in Mumbai. Under the earlier plans, the Mumbai launch was scheduled for February.

MTNL now says it will get into aggressive marketing of its 3G services only after achieving satisfactory penetration.

"We will resort to aggressive marketing once we see good penetration of 3G services," Kuldip Singh, MTNL's director (technical), told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

Jadoo was launched in February in certain pockets in the national capital, with a capacity to support 150,000 subscribers. Compared to this, MTNL has only about 500 subscribers of its 3G network, Singh said.

I think its a mix of a lot of things.

1. PSU’s got a leg-up in launching 3G but they are not equipped to do that.

2. iPhone 3G is available on Airtel and Vodafone and they don’t yet have the 3G capabilities. Apple should have tied up with BSNL or the spectrum should have been awarded to Airtel.

3. BSNL and MTNL failed to educate its consumers. There is no awareness really when it comes to 3G. There is a bit of skepticism too. GPRS irritates and people might think that 3G will frustrate too.

4. As you have mentioned are the devices. The price range for a good 3G phone should be 15K - 20K. That is where the maximum market is.

Still early days to call it a failure. Only if the spectrum is given to Reliance, Airtel and IDEA will we know the real demand for 3G.

For activating Jadoo, subscribers need to pay Rs.500 plus taxes as activation charges and a monthly rental of Rs.599. A voice call on MTNL's own network will cost 60 paise a minute, and those to other networks will cost Rs.1.

The domestic and international long distance (STD and ISD) call tariff will be as per the subscriber's budget plan.

An MTNL-to-MTNL video call will cost Rs.1.80 per minute, while such calls to other networks will cost Rs.3. The voice STD call will cost Rs.3.75, and a voice ISD call will cost Rs.30.

According to me the price issue played a major role in poor response. The plans lauched by bsnl and mtnl are very costly and bit weird.