After a lot of delays, the long-waited 3G & BWA auction processing for private players has been started in India. A total of 9 operators have applied for 3G spectrum auction and 11 companies have applied for BWA auction. So it will be a intense tag of war among companies as only 3 slots (in few circles 4 slots) are available for 3G, and only 2 slots are for BWA, i.e. for WiMAX.
State owned MTNL and BSNL already started 3G services with Lowest Voice and Video Calls tariff and giving a unlimited data plan (speed upto 3.6 Mbps and 7.2 Mbps) at Rs 2500. So wireless data charge is low enough. At the same time private CDMA operators(Reliance, Tata, MTS, Virgin) who are offering EVDO based high speed wireless internet (3.1Mbps) are not offering any unlimited plan. With the entry of private players in 3G connectivity, the price is used to cut down to compete with BSNL and MTN. Recently BSNL announced registering 1 million customers under its 3G Mobile and Data services.
As high speed internet market via 3rd Generation telephony service, a new market of 3G enabled handsets is going to bloom. At present 3G handsets are mainly from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung.Surprisingly no China-made handsets under Indian brand are available for 3G. But Micromax H360 is 3G HSDPA Phone priced at cheap Rs 5500.
Have a look into internet/3G enabled Handset models available in India-:
| Nokia | 2730 classic, 5230, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, N97 mini, N97, N86 8MP, N79, E63, E71, E72, E75, 6700 classic , 6720 classic coming soon: 5235 with Music, 7230, 6700 slider, X6 16GB |
| Samsung | B5310, Omnia Pro B7610, i7500, Omnia Pro7320, Omnia HD, Ultra Touch, TouchWiz, SGH L700, SGH i780, Omnia, SGH 1200, SGH J800, Innov8, Pixon, Star 3G, Jet, GT S7330, GT M7500, M 7603, Metro 3G |
| Sony Ericsson (includes those can surf net fast) | Xperia X2, Satio, Aino, Yari, Naite, T715, C903, W995, W705, C510, C905, Xperia X1, J132, T700, W595, W980, G502, C702, C902, G900, W760i, G700, W910i, K770i, K850i, T650i, K530i, W890i, K660i, K630i, W960i, P1i, K810i Xperia X10, Xperia X10 mini, Xperia X10 Mini Pro, Vivaz and Vivaz Pro |
| LG (includes those have Internet Browser) | GM730, KU250, KU990R, KU990, KS20, KE970, KE770, KP320, KT610, KF510, KM501, KM380T, KC550, KM900, KF750, KF300, KF600,KP199, KP500, BL20v, BL40, GD910, GX200, GW300, GB270, KT610, KM710, GD900, KF240T, KS360, GM730, GW525, GT505, GB220 |
| Motorola (includes those specially for Web Browsing) | MotoRAZR V8, MotoRAZR2 V9, MotoRAZR2 V8, EM 325, U9 * all are older models, new models are coming soon to India |
| Others | Micromax H360, Spice G6500, |
| Smartphones | Blackberry, HTC, Asus (nüvifone G60, nüvifone M20), Acer(Acer X960, Acer F900, Acer M900, Acer DX650), Dell, Apple iPhone 3GS (available on Airtel and Vodafone) |
A basic 3G-UMTS phone will deliver speed upto 384kbps, while a HSDPA enabled (3.5G) handset can offer speed upto 3.6Mbps. So if you are going to invest on a handset priced more than 10,000 INR (=$220) it is always best to buy a HSDPA enabled handset. Micromax H360 is such a handset. Most smartphones has 3G connectivity, 384kbps - 7.2Mbps.
Handset manufacturers shipped 55% smartphones equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity. Wi-fi is popular with notebooks, but this technology is at a nascent stage with mobile phones.A wi-fi connection offers better indoor reception, faster downloads and quality streaming compared with a normal phone network. As WiMAX and Wi-Fi is going to boom in India very soon, you can also consider about this feature while buying a new costly handset, whatever it is just multimedia phone or a smartphone.
When you are buying a handset, OS is also important to check in, Nokia’s Symbian, JAVA, Samsung’s BADA, Windows Mobile, Android, Google Chrome OS, Apple’s iPhone OS – all have their own advantages and disadvantages.
After visiting some mobile shops, I find some recommendations too for budget handsets: Nokia 5230, Sony Ericsson Naite, Micromax H360 – these comes cheap, less than ten thousand bucks and offering 3.6Mbps HSDPA connectivity along with all enrichment like camera, Bluetooth, music player & video calling.
