Intensifying competition in the 3G segment, Sistema Shyam TeleServices on Wednesday launched mobile broadband services promising speeds of up to 9.8Mbps.
The service will be available through data dongles, which can be plugged into a laptop or PC. The operator will launch the service on smartphones by December.
The dongles can be bought from the operator for Rs 1,399. Users are being given 10GB data free for the first 30 days. Post that one can subscribe to a tariff plan ranging from Rs 700 (with 5GB data per month) to Rs 1,399 (20 GB data). Sistema Shyam, which operates telecom services under the MTS brand, claimed that the tariff were 10 per cent cheaper than rival operators.
Called “3GPLUS”, the new service is based on a technology called Evolution-Data Optimised (EV-DO) Rev. B Phase II. EV-DO networks run in some of the most data hungry countries in the world, including the US, Japan and Korea.
The service will be available across all its nine circles of operations i.e. Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata, Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal.
According to Dmitry Shukov, Chief Executive Officer – MTS India, “MTS India is all set to become the only telecom operator in the country to provide ubiquitous 3GPLUS network coverage across all its circles of operations”.