MTNL was the first to launch 3G services in India, and BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) is the first to launch in Chennai. This is a good news for BSNL users in Chennai. The 3G service will enable data speed of 2 Mbps against 144 Kbps available now over the GPRS and EDGE enabled mobile networks. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr M. Karunanidhi, launched the 3G service with an inaugural call to the Union Minister for Communication and IT, Mr A. Raja.

3G is the next generation of mobile communications systems. It enhances the services such as multimedia, high speed mobile broadband, internet access with the ability to view video footage on your mobile handset. With a 3G phone and access to the 3G network you can make video calls, watch live TV, access the high speed internet, receive emails and download music tracks, as well as the usual voice call and messaging services found on a mobile phone, like person to person video, live streaming, downloadable video of entertainment, news, current affairs and sport content and video messaging

Some Cons When you get a 3G connection -Your number will be changed, which means that you cannot activate 3G service for your existing number, but in a later stage it will be possible to upgrade your existing connection to 3G. When you take a 3G connection your SIM will be replaced by USIM. You can find the BSNL 3G Tariff details here.

MTNL, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited has launched the first 3G service in India. I was watching cellguru on NDTV, which had some officials from MTNL explaining about the newly launched service. The connectivity speed is upto 2Mbps which should give excellent browsing speed, video calls and other interesting service is the IPTV. You can watch about 30 popular TV channels on your 3G phone. They have tested the service on iPhone, Omnia and they are very much satisfied with it. Currently they are covering Connaught Place, Sanchar Bhawan, Rajaji Marg, India Gate, Pragati Maidan, Delhi Gate, and Minto Road.

I am not aware when others like Airtel, Vodafone will start 3G, but surely it will not take much time for them to enter the market. There was a delay in getting the Government clearance to start this service. BSNL is also coming up with 3G service very soon. If the service is affordable to a common cell phone user, surely there will lots of users going for this and the market for 3G devices will shoot up as India is a very potential market. The wide usage of this service will also depend on the applications that will be available to the users.

Airtel has launched its service in Sri Lanka on the 12th of January 2009. Bharti Telecoms successful in India is now trying to establish their service in neighboring country. In Sri Lanka, Dialog was dominating the mobile services even though there are other small operators. To enter the market, Airtel has launched different packages. They need to target customers who already are using other services and even people who do not use mobile services. Airtel is one of the DTH service providers in India and may also launch this service in Sri Lanka in future. Airtel also has services like broadband which is very popular in India.

If you are using Dhiraagu Mobile Service and travelling to Sri lanka then you have good roaming rate.

You should select Dialog as the operator when you reach Sri Lanka, you can make and receive calls at the rate of MRF 9.50 which is very cheep when compared to the usual roaming charges.

Now Dhiraagu has International roaming in pre activated in pre paid connections, but I don’t think many use this service as the International roaming rates are so high. I was using it earlier when I was travelling, but these days I try to avoid and use a local SIM card instead.

If you are planning to by a Pocket PC phone, or PDA, then you can for just Rs 10,000. The phone will have features like internet, Push Mail, Calendar, task, same like a blackberry. The phone is to launched by Reliance communications. The phone is branded as RCom.

A US based company has designed the phone and its manufactured in China. Business people will be using PDA , but I feel that its something which everybody can use and once you are used to using pocket PC, then its very difficult to switch to a ordinary phone. In India very less people are using such kind of phones. The success of the product will really depend on the quality and efficiency of the phone. I have been using Windows mobile for the past 5 years and I have used about 6 models. The latest one is HTC Tytn II which is the best I have used which has an excellent processor and memory. I am not aware of the configuration of the phone what RCom is going to market, but if its low configuration then the user will face problems like getting stuck and some memory problems.

Google has announced the release of new Gmail for Mobile 2.0.  According the release note, the new Gmail is much faster, can compose mails and read mails even if you lose the internet connection.

Gmail for mobile 2.0, designed to be faster and more reliable in low signal areas and to even support basic offline access on phones like the Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson W910i, and BlackBerry Curve.

Virgin Mobile is an international brand, running business in different sectors like mobile telephony, transportation, travel, financial services, leisure, music, holidays, publishing and retailing. In India, the mobile service is offered by Tata Teleservices through a brand franchise with Virgin Mobile.

Virgin mobile has simple are clear plans and they offer, prepaid as well as post paid connections. Recently they have announced the cheapest STD calls in India. You can call anywhere in India to any operator for just 50 Paise per minute. It has one of the worlds best network coverage and in India, almost every state is covered. The network coverage is provided by TATA Teleservices and uses the CDMA technology.

Get Paid for incoming Calls

You get paid 1paise for every 6 seconds of a call you receive and you get these credits to your Virgin Mobile account. This is something unique in India. This credit will never expire, so you can use it anytime.

Now you can access bigadda from your mobile. Bigadda is Reliance Project

iPhone will be available to Indian users through Vodafone and Airtel. Airtel has already announced the launch on August 22nd 2008. With new iPhone 3G the users will be able to use the networking with twice the speed as it is now and the GPS facility.

iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs hundreds of third party applications available through the new App Store.

If you use two mobile phones for a CDMA connection like the TATA Indicom or the Reliance, and a GSM connection like the Airtel or Vodaphone, then its time to change your phone. There are mobile phones which can have two phone connections working at the same time on a single mobile phone.

Spice Dual sim GSM CDMA Phone D88n is available in India. It has all the rich features that a basic phone needs and is costing about INR 9000.00.

This phone can give you two numbers which will be working at the same time. You do not need to switch between the connection all the time when you need to use it. Other features includes camera, 1000 numbers phone book, expandable memory upto 1 GB, Games, alarm, bluetooth and many more features

I have not used this phone, but I was looking for something like this. Does anybody know any pocket pc which can have this feature of dual sim?