Srinagar, 20th October, 2004: Airtel, India’s leading mobile service today added another first to its list. The company today became the first private sector mobile service to launch its operations in J&K the state. To expand its mobile services in the state, Airtel has earmarked an investment of Rs. 125 crores during the current fiscal. The company is also responsible for generating direct employment for over 200 people and further provided indirect employment to another 1000. Airtel is the sub-continent’s best* and the largest GSM mobile service in the country, with close to 9 million customers. With the launch in the J&K circle, Airtel’s national footprint now extends to 19 telecom circles.

While receiving the first Airtel call from the crown state, Thiru Dayanidhi Maran, Honorable Minister for Communications & IT, said “I am very pleased to know that Airtel is the first private sector mobile operator to launch its services in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Greater levels of choice and connectivity now made available, is bound to bring people closer together. Increasing levels of interaction, is bound to serve as the engine which would drive trade and commerce in the State.”

*Source: Asia MobileNews


According to Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises said, “We are happy to bring to a culturally rich region like J&K a world-class telecom network backed by a range of first time benefits. The launch of the Airtel mobile service, a first by a private telecom operator is bound to have a profound impact on the economic growth of the entire region, as it would bridge distances, provide employment and also encourage tourism.”

Airtel – A world-class network

Airtel will be operating on the 900 MHz spectrum band and is launching its services with over 90 cell sites, which is expected to be scaled up to 118 sites shortly. This will bring to J&K, unmatched network quality, superior coverage and connectivity. The state-of-the-art mobile infrastructure has been deployed and will be managed by Ericsson, world leaders in mobile technology. The network has superior processors to handle calls, reduce network congestion, enable better call completion rate and increase efficiency. The Airtel network is already a 2.5G, and GPRS ready network.

Airtel – Phase I Rollout

In phase I, Airtel is launching its services in 46 towns of the region including the key towns of Jammu, Srinagar, Samba, Akhnoor, Vijaypur, Kathua, Udhampur, Sopore, Brijbehara, Pampore, Anantnag, Badgam and Baramulla, besides taking in its fold the picturesque Patnitop, Awantipora, Kud and holy town of Katra. Nearly 80% of the current mobile population resides in these 46 towns in J&K. In phase II, by March ‘05 Airtel plans to launch its services in 54 additional towns in the state.

Launch Of Airtel Post Paid

Airtel has launched a slew of post-paid tariffs plans for its customers in J&K. All the tariff plans have been designed keeping the usage patterns of customers, these include– Plan 150, Plan 250 & Plan 525. For Corporates & SME segment, they would find the Corp Plan 475 & the SME Plan 199 extremely appealing.

Special Offer for J&K customers- Announces a special offer for subscribers in J&K; Launches India One- A unique friends and family service by which an Airtel subscriber can make calls to any one Airtel number of choice anywhere in India at Re 1.

Special Packages For Corporates & SME’s- To fuel the state economy, Corporate Houses and Small Medium Enterprises would be provided with special deals on mobile packages. The list of advantages would also include waiver of enrolment fee, providing closed user group (CUG) facility, service by specially appointed corporate sales team and access to “121” CareTouch customer care number.

Roaming coverage nationally and internationally - Airtel post-paid customers in J&K would be provided out roaming facility across 337 networks and 137 countries internationally. In-addition, customers would also be able to roam nationally across all GSM networks.

Promoting Tourism- Airtel post paid customers, residing in other parts of the country and visiting J&K would also be able to in-roam within the state. The facility would thus go a long way in promoting the economic development of the region.

Airtel To Redefine The Mobile Telephony Experience In The Region

Airtel Live – A multi access entertainment portal on the mobile with the most comprehensive content in the spheres of movies, music, sports and mobile games. Properties, which can be experienced and downloaded, include games, color wallpapers, video clips, polyphonic ringtones, music messages, jokes, news, stock tickers etc. Content on Airtel Live can be accessed through voice (by dialing 646), SMS (sending keyword to 646) or the web (www.airtelworld.com)

Hello Tunes - Airtel's Ring back tone service, Hello Tunes, is an exclusive and personalized mobile music service where the caller hears songs and other sound clips instead of the traditional switchboard "ring-ring" tone. Customers can choose from a collection of popular English and Hindi songs and tunes.

Lost call alert - 'Never Miss a Call on Ur Airtel' - An innovative new service from Airtel, it informs the customer about the calls that the customer missed when his/her mobile was either switched off or not reachable.

Information services- Airtel would also offer a suite of “Info” based services which would include Dial-a-cab, Oddjobs, Shop online, Infotel, Tourist info, Traveltel, Floritel, Foodtel, Movietel etc. All such services have been customized to local needs, enabling Airtel customers to save both time and effort. In-addition offerings like Gita Sandesh, Gurbani, Mukhvak and Dua services apart from regular features like News, Astrotel, Horoscope etc have also been launched.

About Bharti:

Bharti Tele-Ventures is one of India’s leading private sector provider of Tele-communications services with an aggregate of 9.47 million customers as of end of September ‘04, consisting of over 8.7 million mobile customers. The company today offers mobile services in 19 out of 23 circles in India. The company also provides fixed - line services and Internet access over DSL in 5 circles. The company complements its mobile and fixed-line services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides reliable end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers by leveraging its nationwide fibre optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. For more information, visit www.bhartiteleventures.com

Disclaimer

“The information contained herein does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. Securities may not be sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Any public offering of securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus and will contain detailed information about the Company and its management, as well as financial statements.”