Customers choose from 3G-enabled phones at a mobile store in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, June 12: The days of going to the Internet café to send a mail is gone. All you need these days is your trustworthy friend, the 3G-enabled cellphone.

The state capital that was once considered laggard compared to the metros has seen a major surge in the demand of 3G-enabled cellphones after service providers started to offer the services in the state.

The residents are no doubt thrilled. Communication, they claim, has never been easier.

Rakesh Mehta, a city-based student, told The Telegraph: “My life has changed for better as now, I can surf the Net on my phone.”

That seems to be one of the major draws in 3G handsets. Sunny Singh, owner of a shop dealing in mobiles, said: “Most of the customers who come to buy 3G-enabled phones mostly look for features related to Net surfing.”

But surfing the Internet is not the only reason why people are choosing 3G phones. Video calling, video-on-demand, live TV and Wi-fi are additional features available in 3G phones.

Not only are the youths attracted by faster downloads, fast data transfer, browsing and voice clarity ensured in 3G-enabled handsets, they are also interested in the various schemes offered by the different service providers such as free text messages, free multimedia messaging and emails.

Another resident, who was buying a 3G-enabled handset from a shop near Dakbungalow Chowk, said: “My children are looking for handsets which offer a variety of gaming options. I am here to purchase one which would be best in this category.”

While customers are thronging mobile stores to buy the latest 3G handsets, the shop owners are making quick bucks by ensuring they have all the varieties on offer to meet their customers’ demand.

“We are selling more than 800 3G-enabled handsets in a month, which is quite healthy considering the fact that most of the service providers have launched the 3G services only recently,” said Chanakya Mishra, who runs a mobile handset shop near Dakbungalow Chowk.

Shop owners in other localities vouch for the same.

“More than one-third of the 1.95-lakh 3G users of Bihar and Jharkhand are from Patna,” a source in the telecom industry said, adding that services of Airtel, Reliance, Aircel and BSNL were the most sought after among such users. “While the majority of young users are opting for the services of private operators, the traditional customers still opt for BSNL,” added the source.

The service providers, too, appear to have met the expectations of their customers as far as adding new features in their 3G phones is concerned.

“I am impressed with the service,” said Anita Singh, a management graduate, who has opted for the 3G services of one of the private operators.

Prakash Singh, who works with a pharmaceutical company, is also content. “I don’t have to go to the Internet café any more to send daily reports to my boss, as I do the same using my mobile, which has the facility to send mails with all kinds of attachments,” he said.