Ringing in 3G

This call was waiting. For over a year. But the PM finally rang. He made the first 3G call last week. A video call. On a 3G-enabled phone. He also watched mobile TV.

Delhi is the first to get 3G service. Courtesy service provider MTNL. No surprises there--it's owned by government.

Now, we can look forward to 3G spectrum auctions. That is, to more confusion, and more corruption, while distributing the 3G licenses.

And video calls: suspcious spouses can ask their better or worse halves to turn the camera around and prove that they are actually where they say they are; ragpickers can show their masters their invaluable finds using their phones (yes there are ragpickers with cell phones--remember, it's Incredible India).

The nation with a billion people has over 300 million mobile phones. It took about 12 years to get here from zero. But in another 4 years, this is expected to become 600 million. Which means everyone except infants and the insane will be carrying this in-your-face device.

Until now, if you were dismayed by an increasingly familiar scene--two people sitting across a table in a restaurant, both talking to someone else on the phone--it could get worse. You may not even need two. Thanks to 3G, every table could host just one person, who talks to another one face-to-face, over his video phone.

The "largest youngest population" is eagerly waiting for the rollout of 3G nationwide. Considering the efficiency of the ministry and the regulator, this could be at best by end 2009. But their parents are shaking in their shoes. This hi-speed service will need high-end phones and result in higher monthly bills. At the end of the day, it will be they--the mostly technophobic ones--who will end up paying for this latest technology upgrade.