Company Press Release:
 
IDEA commences operations in Himachal Pradesh

Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, September 06, 2006: IDEA Cellular, India’s leading cellular operator and an Aditya Birla Group company, today announced the launch of its services in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the His Excellency, Shri Justice Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje, Honourable Governor of HP and the President & CEO of IDEA Cellular Mr. Vikram Mehmi.

Idea is the 6th operator to launch in the region and will herald in a new era in mobile services for customers in Himachal Pradesh. With the launch of services in Himachal Pradesh, Idea will provide its customers a congestion free network packaged with excellent voice clarity.

Idea’s, state-of-the-art congestion free network, will cover key towns and highways in 2 phases. In the current 1st phase, services are available in Shimla, Mandi, Solan Baddi, Kullu, and Sundernagar. In Phase 2, Services will be available in 8 more important towns, which are Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Manali, Kufri, Chail, Kasauli, Parwanoo and Nalagarh. In addition to world-class customer care, and an unmatched value proposition, Idea will also offer its customers innovative value added services and revolutionary and affordable tariffs. This is in keeping with Idea’s endeavor to offer best in class mobile services to its customers across the country.

Announcing the launch of services in HP, Mr. Vikram Mehmi, President & CEO, Idea Cellular Ltd. said, “Across India, Idea has played a key role by connecting people to people and people to places. Idea offers a unique service experience and world-class customer care, everywhere it goes. Himachal Pradesh has a huge potential for growth and Idea aims to become a positive catalyst for development.  The launch of Idea will further boost the telecom infrastructure in the region and hence facilitate overall growth & development”.

Idea will be offering customers slew of innovative value added services and other superior services, which are today being enjoyed by more than 9 million customers across the country. Some value propositions that the customer will enjoy are:

o Friendly Customer Care – Idea believes in delighting customers at every step for a total mobile experience, which is being enjoyed, by more than 9 million delighted customers today across the country.
o GPRS and MMS – Customers can receive instant access to the Internet from their mobile phones through their Idea GPRS services or send colored picture messages with sound clips.
o Say IDEA - Through this service, Idea subscribers will have an ease of use, as they would require to just dial a particular short code, for e.g. 456 and get into the voice portal. Idea subscribers can interact with the services in a friendly, intuitive manner and access a wide range of services including:

o   Ring tones
o   MusiCard – sing along service like Karaoke,
o   Cricket
o   Movies
o   Jokes
o   Logos
o   Horoscopes
o   News
o   Stocks
Subscribers can access this service by dialing 456 from their IDEA mobile phone.

Idea is also slated to launch services in Rajasthan and UP (East) by the end of this year.
 



About Idea Cellular:
As India’s leading GSM Mobile Services operator, IDEA Cellular has licenses to operate in 11 circles. With a customer base of over 9 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.

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', ‘Background Tones’, ‘Group Talk’, 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 ‘Super Power’, 2 Minutes Outgoing Free, Lifelong offer and other segmented offerings like Women’s Card. ‘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. A brand known for their many firsts, Idea is only operator to launch GPRS and EDGE in the country.

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 this platform.

Idea Cellular is part of the Aditya Birla Group, which is India's first truly multinational corporation. Global in vision, rooted in Indian values, the group is driven by a performance ethic pegged on value creation for its multiple stakeholders.

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