New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS) Telecom giant Bharti Airtel Monday launched its third generation (3G) services in Karnataka - its largest circle by revenue - and said that it will launch 3G services in its other circles by March this year.

3G enables customers to access high speed internet, watch videos and live TV, make video calls and perform other multimedia tasks.

Last year, the company won 3G spectrum in 13 out of the 22 telecom circles in a government-led auction.

"3G is much more than a technology migration - it is a transformational shift and Airtel's focus would be to bring to its customers an enriched user experience on the back of a world class delivery network," Bharti Airtel's chief executive officer (India and South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor said in a statement released here.

"World over, 'data traffic' on the back of high speed internet and use of social networking has already exceeded the 'voice traffic'. India is ushering in the domain - though later than most of the world - but no doubt we will catch up at a much faster speed," he added.

The company has introduced innovative 3G tariffs with personalised data usage limits. Customers will be able to manage their data usage alert and prevent "bill shock" with personalised and timely data usage alerts, the statement added.

The time-based plans, where billing will be by hour-basis, will be focussing on customers who have less use of data while the flexi-shield plans, where usage and billing will be capped, is aimed at heavy users of data services.

With this launch, Bharti Airtel becomes the third private operator to launch its 3G services in the country following Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices.