The public sector telecommunication company of India – BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) and the Finnish manufacturer of mobile phones – Nokia have teamed up to provide 3G bundled handsets to the subscribers opting for 3G services. The senior officials from Bharat Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi have confirmed that BSNL has tied up with Nokia to supply handsets for its 3G subscribers.

Nokia India has also confirmed its partnership deal with BSNL. V Ramnath, Nokia India Head, Operator Channels, said, "Nokia India has partnered BSNL in bringing to Indian consumers 3G services on a host of Nokia devices."

According to the BSNL and Nokia tie-up, the Nokia handsets including Nokia 3120Classic, Nokia 5320, Nokia N79, Nokia N81, Nokia E71 and the Nokia 5800Xpress Music, will be offered to the BSNL subscribers (opting for 3G services), bundled with BSNL 3G services. BSNL will offer various price plans for these 3G bundled Nokia devices, including talktime and data packages.

Ramnath said, "We are also in discussions with BSNL to offer its subscribers a combination of free as well as paid for applications in order to further enhance consumer experience.”

Meanwhile, BSNL has joined hands with the consulting arm of Swedish telecommunication equipment provider as part of its “Go To Market strategy and to garner more 3G mobile subscribers”. According to BSNL, the consulting arm of Swedish telecommunication equipment provider will help to fetch network improvements and optimisation services for the core, radio and transmission networks installed by its parent Ericsson.

BSNL commenced is 3G mobile services in February. Presently, the PSU is not aiming to expand its 3G service for the mass market. According to the sources from BSNL, the company has gained 8,000-10,000 3G subscribers since the launch of the services. But on the contrary market reports say that BSNL has not more than 2,000 customers over 24 cities. Anyhow, BSNL is presently the largest provider of 3G services in India; private companies are yet to trigger their 3G services, which allow video streaming applications such as Live TV, movie downloads, high speed data download on mobile phones.