Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced the launch of International Video Calling Service for its 3G customers in India. With this new service Airtel 3G customers in India can have international video calls and interact face-to-face with friends and colleagues in more than 227 countries across the world.
Airtel is the first India telecom company in India to provide such a service. Earlier this year the India Govt restricted 3G video calling coverage to Pan- India due to security reasons, as there was no way to monitoring the calls. Bharti Airtel adopted new systems thus providing the ability to monitor the 3G video calls. This made India Govt to approve the Airtel request on 3G International Video Calling Service.
Launching the service Mr. Atul Bindal, President – Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel said, “At airtel, it is our constant endeavor to introduce services that enrich the lives of our customers. As we take the lead in launching International Video Calling on 3G in India, this marks the beginning of a new era of next generation communication in the country – one that will help mobile customers break the barrier of boundaries and instantly connect with their personal and business network across the world. Given the high demand of video calling services seen since the launch of airtel 3G services, we are confident that our customers will see great value from the availability of this capability for international calls as well. We invite our 3 million plus airtel 3G customers to enjoy this exciting experience”.
Airtel 3G customers in India can see and talk with there friends and relatives in 227 countries around the world face to face through video call at rate of Rs.14/min, for USA, Canada, Bangladesh and at Rs. 20 /min for UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Oman , which seems to be a decent rate for the unique service provided by Airtel and it is excepted to reduce in the coming months, as when other operators also provide such services . As a pre-requisite to making ISD video calls, both the caller and the called customer have to be on 3G network and have a front-camera in their 3G handset in their respective countries.
For more details on international video calling service please call Airtel customers care number at 12134 or visit Airtel 3G website.
I think it will take some time , before we see more of video calling services, as the current 3G service provided by Indian telecom operators are not up to the mark. Low speed and also low video calling clarity may cause very small group of users actually using the service . What do you think on it, do Comment.