Labels: Airtel, Idea

New Delhi, August 03, 2008: Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile service provider has unveiled a unique opportunity for its customers with the launch of 'Airtel Mobile Campus'. A unique 'virtual place – on the move', Airtel Mobile Campus, by facilitating a one-of-its kind convergence through web, wap and SMS, gives a new dimension to the idea of the mobile as the most simple, convenient device for entertainment on the go. With this, customers can express their feelings, emotions, needs, aspirations and connect with their friends anytime anywhere.

A unique 360 degree offering for the youth, Airtel Mobile Campus enables an exciting user experience with a host of activities that users can engage in. Users will amongst others, be able to upload & share photos and videos or blast an SMS to their circle of friends on Campus, express themselves through mini blogs, give shape to their aspirations with contests & applications or participate in discussions/forums happening on their Campus. What's more, users get to avail Night and weekend calls @ 25p, SMS @10p and earn rewards on the basis of the activities they engage in on Airtel Mobile Campus.

Shashi Arora, CEO Bharti Airtel, Mobile Services Delhi & NCR says, "One of the key enabling reasons for our continuing leadership position in the competitive telecom market has been our ability to 'Think Fresh' and innovate, giving our customers a delightful experience. Airtel Mobile Campus brings a unique 'virtual place – on the mobile' enabling customers to give shape to their aspirations through unique community engagement initiatives and communicate the way they want to, anytime anywhere."

Users can access Airtel Mobile Campus by visiting the Mobile Campus banner on Airtel Live! Or by sending keyword < mcampus> to 54321 to get a link to Mobile Campus on their GPRS enabled handsets. To avail the Airtel Mobile Campus service, existing as well as new customers need to recharge with Rs 250 for a talk-time of Rs 50 and a 90-day validity period.

Tariffs:

Calls   Day**   Night/Weekend**
Local Airtel to Airtel  0.5     0.25   
Other Calls     1       0. 5   
STD     1.5     1      
SMS    
Local   0.2     0.1    
National        0.5     0.25   

* *(All call tariffs@ Rs. per minute, Night tariffs for calls between 11:00pm-7:00am,Weekened tariffs-Friday 11:00pm-Mon 7:00am)

Mobile and the internet have become an integral part of the life of the youth for staying in touch with the community. Airtel Mobile Campus promises to bring together a unique value proposition that enables this segment of mobile users to stay in touch with their world through affordable means.

Labels: Airtel, Idea

With 'BPL Mobile @Café', BPL Mobile has redefined the WAP usage experience
of its subscriber by offering an array of content and therefore providing
them a complete engaging experience on the mobile phone. 'BPL Mobile @Café'
offers an innovative grid format of icons providing an enriched & simplified
icon based content discovery and navigation. The pre-activated service comes
without a monthly rent letting you pay as per usage.

A distinct place for having fun, 'BPL Mobile @Café' invites friends to
connect together at the touch of their fingertips and share their emotions
via chat rooms and messengers. Beyond the creative wallpapers, animations,
videos, and rib tickling jokes the portal is enriched with a wide collection
of music, from swinging to the beats of MP3 polytones to downloading
ringtones, from the latest chartbusters and the hit song of the day, to
Ghazals, devotional songs, spiritual discourses by Osho, Kabir and prayers.

Not only this, Lord Ganesha throws light on your horoscope with 'Ganesha
Speaks' special service for devotees provides live darshans from
Siddhivinayak, Haji Ali and Shirdi

'BPL Mobile @Café' also opens doors to the two biggest fascinations of young
India, Bollywood and Cricket. BPL Mobile subscribers won't be far from the
tinsel town with easy access to glimpses of Page3 parties, popular movie
scenes, trailers of new releases and award ceremonies. Not only this, Mobile
TV keeps you updated with the latest happenings and news from news channels,
music channels, etc at the click of the button.

While 'BPL Mobile @Café' with Mobile ESPN provides sports' lovers with news,
highlights, videos, cricket scores, statistics, and cricketer interviews for
cricket crazy fans along with the latest happenings and updates on Formula1,
football, baseball, golf and other sports.

Labels: BPL, Idea

Labels: BSNL, Idea

Labels: Idea

Idea ended the quarter with a subscriber base of 21.05 mn, adding 2.38
mn subscribers during the quarter.

In its current 11 service areas of operation, Idea increased its
subscriber market share from 15.6 per cent at the end of September
2007, to 15.8 per cent at the end of December 2007.

The consolidated revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 of
Rs. 17103 mn grew by 48 per cent, and EBITDA of Rs. 5694 mn grew by 51
per cent, on a year on year basis. The net profit for the quarter
ended December 31, 2007 was Rs 2368 mn, a growth of 108 per cent over
the same quarter last year.

The consolidated revenues grew by 9.3 per cent when compared to the
previous quarter ended September 30, 2007, while EBITDA grew by 11 per
cent.

The Company has recently received the spectrum to launch operations in
the Mumbai and Bihar service areas in addition to receipt of spectrum
in the remaining districts in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. (ANI)
--MP

Labels: Idea

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Thursday, November 22, 2007 -- (Business Wire
India) -- The next phase of telecom growth will be driven by broadband
paradigm, said Mr. R R Shah, Member Secretary, Planning Commission at
a conference on 'Connecting the Next 500 Million: Telecom Roadmap for
the 11th Five Year Plan 2007 - 12', organised by the Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII), here on Thursday.

Majority of the next 500 million customers in telecom will be in the
rural areas, through rural connectivity. The approach to enable this
will require the government to review the strategy pursued so far, and
bring substantial change in policy framework followed, to enable the
growth of the Telecom industry during the next Plan period, said Mr.
Shah. Government is planning to develop villages as knowledge centers,
he said.

There is a whole set of need at the rural level which has to be
converted into opportunity in which Information and Communication
technologies will have a major role, he said. Local content has to be
encouraged to implement e-governance applications and connect rural
India for the overall inclusive growth, he added.

There will be substantial outlays in the next plan period for
education and health. Rural connectivity, e-governance applications, e
commerce, tele-medicine and e-education which are going to contribute
to substantial growth of telecom industry in the next phase of
inclusive development in the 11th Five Year Plan period up to 2012,
said Mr. Shah.

Mr. Sanjeev Aga, Chairman - CII National Committee on Telecom and
Broadband and Managing Director, Idea Cellular Limited said that
telecom industry is facing the challenges of interconnectivity as well
as growth and expansion within the sector. He emphasised on the need
that the government should instill confidence of the telecom industry
by planning standard policies for the sector. Mr. Aga suggested that
telecom policy should be integrated with national planning process
undertaken by the Planning Commision.

Next three years will be difficult for the telecom industry as
telecom companies will enter different geographical and socio-economic
regions to foster growth, said Mr. Aga. The cost of passive
infrastructure is enormous and telecom companies should consider the
infrastructural challenges in the rural areas, he added.

Mr. D Shivakumar, VP and Managing Director, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd. said
that telecom sector in India has grown because of innovative schemes
offered by Indian operators. Growing economy, consumer spend,
consistency of policy framework, operator's innovation and affordable
handset will enable the telecom sector to reach the target of 500
million connections by 2010, said Mr. Shivakumar.

The telecom growth will bring prosperity in rural areas and push the
productivity in all the sectors, said Mr. Shivakumar. Affordability
and availability of infrastructure will be key challenges for telecom
industry to reach the rural customer, he mentioned. Value added
services (VAS) industry is going to reach Rs.77,823 crores in 2012
which would be around 25% of mobile telephony market, informed Mr.
Shivakumar.

Vikram Tiwathia, Chief Information Officer, CII said that emphasis on
broadband technology and introduction of NGN technology will maneuver
the telecom sector to next phase of growth. As recommendations for the
growth of telecom industry on behalf of CII, he suggested spectrum
availability, unbundling of copper local loop for enhancing broadband
use, rationalisation of taxes, stable electricity supply and proper
handling of e-waste components be attended to for the next phase of
growth in the 2007-2012 FYP period.

The report "Telecom: Catalyzing the New Indian Economy" was released
by Mr. R R Shah at the conference. The report produced by Frost &
Sullivan examines the telecom growth in 11th Plan period.
Specifically, the focus is on identifying challenges of reaching the
650 Million users by 2012, infrastructure and regulatory issues that
need to be addressed. The report is based on valuable inputs from
across academia, policy makers, and business leaders across telecom
and related industries.

Presenting the findings, Mr. Anand Rangachary, Managing Director,
Frost & Sullivan said that supportive policy environment, improving
telecom infrastructure and growth in rural telephony are the key
challenges for the telecom industry.

He mentioned that Indian telecom industry had contributed over
Rs.1,05,287 to the Indian economy in 2006 and is expected to grow at a
CAGR of 26.8% to reach Rs.3,44,921 crores by 2012.

Mr Rangachary added that the Telecom industry is going to provide
direct employment to 2.8 million people whereas 7 million people will
get indirect employment, the report stated. E-agriculture will reduce
procurement costs of farmers by 2.5% which will result in an economic
benefit of Rs.6100 crores, added Mr. Rangachari.

Labels: Idea

Labels: BSNL, Idea

Labels: Idea