Aircel Assam & Northeast circle business head Dibyajyoti Khaund speaks at the news conference on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, March 5: Telecom service provider Aircel will extend its 3G service to three towns in Assam.

“We have launched 3G services in Silchar today. On Friday, we will introduce the same in Nagaon while by the end of this month or the first week of April, our customers in Bongaigaon can avail the service as well,” Dibyajyoti Khaund, business head (Assam & Northeast circle), said.

Aircel already has a 3G presence in Guwahati, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Tezpur, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia. It has a subscriber base of 37 lakh in Assam, of which 42 per cent are Internet (both 2G and 3G) users and 50,000 avail 3G services.

“In addition, we have also come up with an innovative offer — 3G Good Morning — in the three towns where customers will get unlimited data free and can browse up to 100MB with 3G data speed between 4am and 8am everyday for a month. The idea is to acclimatise the customers with the service before they decide to subscribe to it,” Khaund said.

The telecom major is looking to cash in on the growing data business in the region, having recently launched innovative 3G products like video calling and unified data tariffs in Assam.

“The data business is growing at a fast pace unlike the voice market which is more or less stagnant. Hence, our focus will be on providing innovative 3G service and good data speed to our subscribers, with students and youths being the target group,” he said.

According the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the Internet user base in the country is projected to touch 243 million by June 2014, a year-on-year growth of 28 per cent.

Aircel had posted a 3G data growth of 277 per cent in 2012-13. “We are expecting more growth in this space given that 3G handsets have now become more affordable,” Khaund said.

Aircel was the first telecom operator to make 3G affordable to the masses. “We had also led the data revolution in the country with the launch of the Pocket Internet that changed the way Internet on mobile phones was perceived,” he said.