Bharti Airtel, Aircel To Launch iPhone 4 In India Soon

NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--Two telecommunication service providers said Monday that they will launch Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone 4 smartphones in India in coming months as mobile telecom companies start rolling out third-generation services.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY) and Aircel Ltd. separately announced their plans to launch the phone, but both declined to say when would they launch the most-recent iPhone version and at what price.

Apple didn't offer any immediate comment.

Sales of smartphones like iPhone, which is popular for its high-speed Internet and mobile software capabilities, are expected to get a boost in India as telecom companies are rolling out 3G services that offer high-speed data transfer capabilities.

With more than 790 million subscribers, India is the second-largest market after China for telecom services. It is also the fastest-growing market.

India's mobile handsets market is expected to grow 25% to 210 million units in 2011, according to market research firm CyberMedia Research, which expects smartphones to account for 5.7% of the total handset sales in 2011 compared with 3.6% last year.

Bharti, which already sells earlier models of iPhone, has so far added 2 million users to its 3G mobile telephone network, which it launched in January.

The company, India's largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, has bandwidth to offer 3G services in 13 of the country's 22 telecom service areas.

Aircel, which has more than 50 million subscribers on its second-generation network, started providing 3G services in February. It also has bandwidth to offer 3G telecom services in 13 areas.

Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd. holds a 74% stake in Aircel, while India's Apollo Hospitals group owns the rest.

Apple's iPhone 4 was first released in the U.S. and four other countries in June last year, with a starting price of $199.

Last June, Vodafone Essar Ltd., the Indian unit of the U.K.'s Vodafone Group PLC, had said would launch iPhone 4 in India, but didn't say by when.

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