This may come a delight to many, especially who have their loved ones abroad. According to a press release, Airtel has launched International Video Calling services.
Most of the Telecom providers in India including Tata Docomo, Reliance, Idea & BSNL have video calling services on 3G network – however, the coverage is limited to Pan- India (atleast as far as I am aware of).
Contrary to this, Airtel’s International Video Calling service will be available to more than 227 countries across the globe.
Airtel International Video Calling Cost
An Airtel 3G customer in India can see and talk with his friends and relatives in USA, Canada, Bangladesh face to face through video call at just Rs.14/min, while on the move. Similarly, video calls to UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Oman are priced at Rs. 20 per minute.
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.
Video Calling adoption in India
Although all the telecom operators have launched 3g services, the speeds have really not been upto the mark. I have personally tried using all 3G services in Pune and my experience has been far from good. Doing a video call requires lot of bandwidth, and if the 3G data speed itself is poor, then it beats the purpose. Additionally, Video calling requires front and back cameras, very few mobile have that so the target audience is really narrow.
I think it will quite a while before we see adoption of Video calling services. What do you think?