Aircel tests 3G technology, readies for launch

Chennai, Mar 1 (UNI) Leading mobile service provider in the state, Aircel in association with Maxis Communications Malaysia has successfully tested '3G Readiness' in the city.

The 3G trials were conducted with ZTE corporation.

''Having successfully completed 3G trials at Chennai in accordance with the 3G-PP standards and the guidelines issued by the Department of Telecommunications, Aircel is now ready to roll out 3G-based services,'' CEO Aircel Jagadish told mediapersons here today.

''Aircel has tested a complete array of 3G services including voice calls and video calls (64 kbps) as well as rich data services such as donwloading of movies, music, Java games and pictures (384 to 1024 kbps),'' he added.

High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) services such as downloading large volumes of business data and streaming movies online (3.3 Mbps) have also been tested using both handsets and computers with HSDPA modem of ZTE make, he said adding that Aircel in association with ZTE had deployed the entire range of 3G equipment, which included Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) servers, media gateways, radio network controllers, Node B, home location register, servers for treaming data services and VoIP modes to conduct these 3G trials.

On the technology perspective, Aircel Chief Technology Officer Chinmay said ''Aircel has already deployed '3G Ready' core network in Chennai and Tamil Nadu and having successfully completed the testing process, we will be able to offer 3G-based state-of-art mobile services upon necessary clearances from the government.'' ''Aircell will also conduct similar 3G trials in Coimbatore shortly for which the newly deployed 3G Core Network will be used, he said adding ''only radio network controllers and Node B have to be deployed to test and make the services available to subscribers.'' UNI