New Delhi, May 25, 2006: In a dramatic move to create a public voice in India, IDEA Cellular Ltd., India’s leading cellular operator has decided to back the CNN IBN Citizen Journalist program. Taking into consideration that the public not only have a right to voice their concerns in a public forum but also to report news from various parts of the country, IDEA will enable the masses to use their mobile platform to report news of all genres- sports, general interest and entertainment. A first of its kind interactive news programme, citizens will report an event by sending in an SMS, MMS or simply calling in his story, which will be covered on CNN IBN and their web-site ibnlive.com.

With ‘Citizen Journalist’ mobile users are encouraged to report or send video file images to SMS or MMS CJ <story> to 2622. Each time a citizen reports a story, either through voice call, SMS or MMS (picture or video), the editorial team at CNN IBN will verify the story and air it in the form of BREAKING NEWS on the channel. Citizen Journalists may also post it by mail on www.ibnlive.com

Commenting on the association with IDEA, a leading journalist himself, Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor & Chief, CNN-IBN, said, “Citizen journalism is an idea whose time has come. Its CNN-IBN's way of engaging the viewer, of making him an active participant in the process of news-gathering, of making television news truly interactive. The big idea is to build a citizenry that is engaged with public life. On behalf of CNN-IBN, I would like to thank IDEA for supporting this idea.”

Mr. Vikram Mehmi, CEO, Idea Cellular Ltd. said “The IDEA CITIZEN JOURNALIST initiative is a path breaking concept and in its true sense will empower every Indian to take on issues- news of the people, for the people and by the people. The mobile interface is the most interactive platform for Citizen Journalists and we are happy to back this initiative."

Disclaimer:
"Idea is only a carrier and is not responsible for any content which is aired by CNN-IBN and is in no way responsible for the contents including the third party."
 

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’ and a complete suite of Mobile Email Services. 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’, 2 Minutes Outgoing Free and other segmented offerings. ‘Lifetime Idea’ is the first and only loyalty program, for pre paid customers, introduced by a Cellular brand.
 
Customer Service and Innovation are the drivers of this Cellular Brand. 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 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.

The latest feather in the IDEA cap is the GSM Association Award for Bill Flash, it has recently won making it the first cellular operator in India to win an award on an international platform.

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