·         Completes one of the fastest mobile network rollouts – Keeps its commitment of launching Airtel by the end of this fiscal to accelerate the process of building back the islands

·         Commissions a world class GPRS mobile network on a VSAT backbone in partnership with Siemens – world leaders in mobile technology

·         Launch of Airtel heralds the beginning of an era of choice 

·         Investments of more than Rs. 20 crore earmarked 

·         Airtel brings a bouquet of unique, innovative services like Hello Tunes, Airtel Live and EasyCharge

Port Blair, March 23, 2005: Bharti Cellular Limited, a subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures, one of India’s leading telecom conglomerate, today announced the launch of Airtel mobile services in Andaman and Nicobar islands. Airtel is the sub-continent’s best* and the largest GSM mobile service in the country, with more than 10.6 million customers. Airtel is the first private mobile service in the union territory. The launch underlines Bharti’s commitment to build a world-class telecom network in the islands before the end of the current fiscal. A reliable telecom network will further facilitate the rehabilitation process in a geography, which is one of the worst affected, in the wake of the Tsunami wave onslaught. Mr. Pradeep Baijal, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), received the first call from the Airtel network in Andamans.

The launch of Airtel in Andaman & Nicobar is one of the fastest rollouts of a mobile network and it has been made possible by deploying a VSAT backbone. The launch heralds the beginning of an era of ‘choice’ in Andaman & Nicobar. This launch also takes Bharti much closer to establishing an all India mobile footprint.

*Source: Asia MobileNews

Launching Airtel in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Mr. Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Cellular Limited, said, “A reliable, world class telecom network is the corner stone of any city, state or nation. While embarking on this project, we realised the complexities of laying a network amidst the challenging conditions that prevailed here. However, we took it as a mission, and today it is my proud privilege to launch Airtel in this land of history and culture.” 

According to Mr. Rajan Swaroop, Director, Eastern Hub, Bharti Cellular Limited, “This is a historic moment as the launch of Airtel ushers in an era of ‘choice’ in the region. Airtel’s world class network, high quality customer service, innovative value added services and seamless coverage will redefine the mobile telephony experience of customers in Andamans and provide them the same experience, which has made Airtel the choice of millions of customers across the country. With the launch of services in Andamans, we have also become the first private mobile service provider to complete full rollout under the West Bengal license area.”

Airtel will be operating on the 900 MHz spectrum band and is launching its services and this will bring to the region an unmatched congestion free network with superior voice clarity on its 2.5G GPRS enabled network. The state-of-the-art mobile infrastructure has been deployed and will be managed by Siemens, world leaders in mobile technology. The network has superior processors to handle calls, reduce network congestion, enable better call completion rates and increase efficiency.

Airtel’s Pre-paid offering is based on the Intelligent Network (IN) platform of Ericsson, which will bring to the island a host of superior value-added services.

In phase I, Airtel is launching its services in Port Blair followed by the launch of services in other key islands.

Airtel has launched Airtel pre-paid, one of India’s leading pre-paid card at only Rs. 199/-. Given that pre-paid has been a catalyst of steep growth in the mobile industry, Airtel pre-paid with its innovative value added services is set to revolutionize the mobile segment in Andaman. These includes pre-activated STD and ISD, GPRS and MMS services, Easy charge facility of recharging, widest 2 way national roaming, instant on screen balance, missed call alert etc. Airtel customers will benefit from Airtel’s unique Easy Charge service, which enables a customer to recharge anytime, anywhere and for any denomination above Rs. 60/-

Investment of more than Rs. 20 crores in the current fiscal

Airtel has earmarked investments of more than Rs. 20 crore for its mobile infrastructure in Andaman & Nicobar. Given that telecom is a core infrastructure area, this will further aid the growth & development of the union territory’s economy.

Never-before benefits that leverage Bharti’s national footprint for Prepaid customers

Airtel – Customised products and services

Airtel is offering a slew of innovative and customized products and services for its customers. Some of these include:

a) 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), GPRS (Airtel Live mobile portal) or the web (www.airtelworld.com)

b) 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 Bengali, English and Hindi amongst others.

c) Missed call alert - 'Never Miss a Call on your Airtel'  - An innovative service from Airtel, the customer is informed about the calls that he or she missed when their phone was either switched off or not reachable.

d) Widest roaming coverage nationally and internationally  - As a result of the largest spread across 21 circles in India, Airtel offers its customers of staying connected with their near and dear in one of the largest number of locations in India. Airtel also offers the largest international roaming coverage across 125 countries and 250 networks across the globe.

e) Easy Bill – 1st time in Bengal, Airtel’s state-of-the-art billing system not only makes sure bills are easy to read but also ensures error free billing.

f) Choice of Number – Only Airtel offers its customers the freedom to choose their own lucky number for a connection for oneself or even for another member within the family

g) GPRS and MMS – Customers can receive instant access to the internet from their mobile phones through their Airtel GPRS services or send colored picture messages with sound clips via the Airtel Multimedia Messaging service. With the launch of GPRS services, Airtel will be the 1st operator to offer GPRS services on GSM in the state. Airtel is targeting to offer attractive benefits on GPRS for its customers.

h) M-Bill –Customers can know their bills even before receiving them. All information is available via a mini statement on SMS giving details of current charges, total amount due and payment due date.

i) Power of 32K SIM – Airtel’s 32K Sim is India’s most powerful simcard that offers customers host of facilities in a convenient way. It enables customers to save upto 250 numbers in the phone book and upto 30 messages in the inbox.

j) World class customer care – Airtel believes in delighting customers at every step of their mobile phone experience Only Airtel provides a national call center number 121and sate-of-the-art customer care facility. 

About Bharti:

Bharti Tele-Ventures is one of India’s leading private sector provider of Tele-communications services with an aggregate of 11.5 million customers as of end of February ‘05, consisting of approximately 10.66 million mobile customers. The company today offers mobile services in 21 out of 23 circles in India. The company also provides fixed - line services and Internet access over DSL in 6 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 fiber 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

For further information:

Shalini Gupta

9831049003