Indian Apple iPhone 3G launches without the 3G

By Davey Winder
Monday, 18 August 2008 18:22

Mobility

As the Apple iPhone 3G gets set to launch later this week in India there remains just one small problem: India has not got an operational 3G mobile network yet...

File under: what is the point of that then? Both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are set to start selling the Apple iPhone 3G later this week, but it will be missing one important component - the 3G network to run it on.

Yes, if you are in India you can pop along to the Vodafone website and pre-register your Apple iPhone 3G but if you read the small print as the bottom of the product information pages the eagle eyed will notice something strange.

It says "Currently compatible only with 2G networks. Only select features and services are currently available in India."

The problem being that there is no 3G network operating in India as of yet. Indeed, according to some reports it could be quite some time before India gets one at all.

It seems that an argument between the Indian federal finance and telecommunications ministries is partly to blame. The crux of the matter being whether Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) licenses can be awarded according to subscriber numbers in any given region as suggested.

The Indian Telecom Regulatory Authority seems adamant that current CDMA operators cannot be awarded licenses in this manner.

Analysts are now reporting that this latest regulatory hiccup could mean that 3G will not arrive in India until well into 2009, at the very earliest. Even then, rollout issues mean that it would be restricted to as few as one in five users for the next four years.

Which makes the decision by Apple to bring the iPhone 3G, or should that be iPhone 2.5G, into the Indian market appear rather odd at first glance. I mean, there is being an early adopter and there is being taken for a ride.

So why would anyone want to buy an Indian iPhone? And more to the point, how much will they have to pay? Find out on page 2...

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