Bharti to be EDGE-ready by mid-2004

Faced with stiff competition from CDMA-based mobile operators, Bharti Cellular said its network in Delhi would be "EDGE" ready by the middle of next year. This will offer customers high speed data access on the mobile phone.

EDGE, which stands for Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution, will offer peak speeds of 473 kilo bits per second (kbps) as compared to 115 kbps offered by existing cellular networks.

Bharti would be the first company to launch the technology in India and the fifty seventh, globally.

The move comes even as code division multiple access based operators like Reliance Infocomm have already brought in third generation CDMA 1X technology which offers data peak speeds of 153 kbps.

Sanjay Nandrajog, chief executive officer, Bharti Cellular, Delhi, said: "EDGE is the new mantra on global internet connectivity and will allow us to offer high speed data services approximately three times those of GPRS (general packet radio services)".

Bharti is at present undertaking trials of the new technology with Swedish equipment provider Ericsson.

However, one of the issues that could prevent large-scale demand for the new technology is the high price of the handset. An EDGE-enabled handset costs about Rs 25,000- Rs 30,000.