Vodafone Essar set to play 3G card

Mumbai, Feb 23: Telecom operator, Vodafone Essar, On Wednesday, Feb 23 declared its plans to roll-out its 3G services in a phased manner by end-this fiscal.

"We have a 3G-ready network, currently in optimisation which we will be launching very quickly," Vodafone Essar Director (Enterprise and Carrier Business), Naveen Chopra told reporters here.

Presently, trials are on and the service is expected to be launched in a phased manner by Mar, he said.

The roll-out will be on city-wise basis and not pan-India or state-wise, Chopra said.

The telecom firm, which recently launched fixed line data and voice services for enterprise customers or mobile corporate customers is eyeing to double its revenue from such customers in five-years, he said.

"Currently it is in the region of 8-10 per cent. And it should be doubling (in five-years)," he said.

The firm has the capability of servicing enterprise customers for fixed line, Chopra said, adding "we have over 95,000 km of optical fiber and a 3G-ready network."

The company in collaboration with IT major Wipro has also built a state-of-the art network operation centre in Pune to service fixed line customers.

"Wipro will be managing both end-to-end services of both managing the fixed line network as well as understanding our customers, right from provisioning line network as they come out on fixed line services and then monitoring their performances as well ground support, etc," Chopra said.

PTI