New Delhi, February 21, 2006: Idea Cellular Ltd, India’s leading cellular operator is proud to announce that it is the only GSM mobile service operator from India to have won a prestigious award at the, ‘2006 GSM Association Awards’. The award was presented by the GSM Association at the recently concluded 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain in the presence of an august gathering of 850 senior Industry leaders.

GSM Association Awards are by far the most respected Awards in the Telecom World. Infact, they are recognised as the Oscars of GSM mobile Industry because of their enviable reputation as the hallmark of quality. With more than 520 submissions from across the World for the various categories, and just 18 winners, the two phase judging process by an international panel of 75 independent industry and subject matter experts, drawn from the academic, analyst, media and entertainment communities, was an extremely tough one.

IDEA Cellular is also the only Indian GSM operator to have won a GSM Association award so far, ever since the establishment of awards in 1995. The award was presented for IDEA Cellular’s unique “Bill Flash" service in the “Best Billing or Customer Care Solution” category in stiff competition with other International nominees like Orange Communications (SA), Bitfone Corporation (California), MegaFon (Moscow) and T-Mobile (UK) Limited.

“Bill Flash” is a USSD based application wherein the customer dials a five digit string (eg *111# in Delhi) and gets his 'Unbilled Amount and Billing Information' as a flash on his handset screen within 30 seconds - even while roaming!  This service, another IDEA first, was developed after research revealed that nearly 40% of customer calls to our call centres were being made to inquire about the billing details. “Bill Flash” has impressed IDEA’s customers across all Circles with its high customer friendliness and usefulness, as the customers now do not need to call up the call centre for their bill details.

Accepting the award, Mr. Vikram Mehmi, CEO, Idea Cellular Ltd, said, “We are proud to receive the GSM Associations Award, the most prestigious awards in the wireless industry. It recognises our key differentiator of high quality customised services and reiterates our commitment to continually innovate our services to meet our customer requirements”.

As India’s leading GSM Mobile Services operator, IDEA Cellular has licenses to operate in 11 circles. With a customer base of over 6 million, IDEA Cellular has operations in Delhi, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Haryana, UP- West and Kerala. IDEA Cellular’s footprint currently covers approximately 45% of India’s population and over 50% of the potential telecom-market.

Customer Service and Innovation are the drivers of this Cellular Brand. With GPRS currently available on all its’ networks, for both pre and post paid customers, IDEA Cellular is the first company to commercially launch next generation EDGE technology (a 3G technology) for its Delhi circle.

As a leader in Value Added Services, Innovation is central to IDEA’s VAS Factory. It is the first cellular company to launch music messaging with ‘Cellular Jockey’, ‘Global SMS’ in over 540 networks across all technology platforms, a voice portal with ‘Say IDEA’. A frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans, IDEA Cellular has the distinction of offering the most customer friendly and competitive Pre Paid offerings, for the first time in India, with ‘Eco Talk’, ‘Flexi-charge’, ‘Super Power’ and other segmented offerings. ‘Lifetime Idea’ is the first and only loyalty program, for pre paid customers, introduced by a Cellular brand and Pay Easy which is bill payment through the effective use of the pre-paid channel, IDEA is the only operator in the world to launch this service. Idea is the only cellular operator who has launched a complete suite of Mobile Email services.

More about IDEA Cellular Ltd. at http://www.ideacellular.com
 

About the GSM Association Awards:

Established in 1995, the Awards are presented by the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade organisation for more than 670 mobile operators and leading manufacturers and suppliers that serve more than 1.5 billion users across more than 200 countries of the world. The GSM community accounts for 75% of the digital mobile phone market worldwide.

The GSM Awards are open to both members and non-members of the GSM Association and are presented annually at the mobile industry's leading event, the 3GSM World Congress.

Full details of eligibility, criteria, categories, rules and entry forms can be found at: www.gsmawards.com