3G services in metro will cost atleast 700-900 Rs/monthBharti Airtel , Indian Telecom Market leader cautioned that 3G mobile services will not come cheap, especially for subscribers in metros, as service providers had to pay unexpected heavy fee for spectrum. “Take the example of Delhi itself, or Mumbai. The amount for spectrum that has been charged is close to Rs 3,500 crore.

according to Sunil Mittal, Chairman Bharti Group. “To recover heavy license fees and input cost, it would be charged atleast Rs 700-900 per month,” On the Qs of 3G launch, Mittal said, “We will launch 3G Some time later this year. We are just waiting for the spectrum allocation, which is promised in September, a few months after that.”

In the rest of the circles, specially in the C-category, the tariffs may not be very high. “The pricing of subscriber tariffs have to be based on the input cost. Any industry relies on input cost and here, the input cost is spectrum and it has gone high,” he said. (more…)