Company Press Release:

Vodafone launches new BlackBerry service plan at Rs 299

Prosumer Lite @299 - unlimited email and IM connectivity

Delhi, March 06, 2009: Vodafone Essar, one of India’s leading cellular service providers, today announced the launch of a new BlackBerry service plan* - Prosumer Lite @ 299 - that offers BlackBerry® service users unlimited access to up to 10 supported personal/business email accounts as well as various popular instant messaging (IM) services, at a monthly rent of only Rs. 299/-.  

Harit Nagpal, Marketing and New Business Director at Vodafone Essar said, “The new service plan provides an innovative and highly economical option for customers who wish to stay connected primarily through e-mail and instant messaging while on the move.”

Ravinder Takkar, Director- Enterprise Business, Corporate and Carriers, Vodafone Essar said, “The new service plan aims at expanding the market for BlackBerry services in India and extending the opportunity beyond large corporate customers to small and medium enterprises and individuals.” 

Prosumer Lite @299 enables BlackBerry service users on the Vodafone network to access up to 10 supported POP3/IMAP email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail). They can view, manage and respond to all their messages right from their smarphones. Customers can also view popular attachment formats like JPEG, TIF, Microsoft® Word, Excel and Power Point®.      

The new BlackBerry service plan from Vodafone also enables customers to have unlimited access to popular IM services like Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk ,Window Live Messenger and BlackBerry® Messenger. Prosumer Lite @299 is available for all BlackBerry smartphones from Vodafone, including the BlackBerry® Storm™, BlackBerry® Pearl™ and BlackBerry® Curve™, as well as for devices with BlackBerry® Connect™ software. 

* New service plan from Vodafone is offered in conjunction with BlackBerry Internet Service and includes unlimited access to email and instant messaging.

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About Vodafone Essar

Vodafone Essar in India is a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc and commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai.  Vodafone Essar now has operations in 22 circles with over 63.34 million customers**. Over the years, Vodafone Essar, under the Hutch brand, has been named the ‘Most Respected Telecom Company’, the ‘Best Mobile Service in the country’ and the ‘Most Creative and Most Effective Advertiser of the Year’.

Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile communications company. It currently has equity interests in 27 countries across 5 continents and 40 partner networks with over 289 million proportionate customers worldwide. Vodafone has partnered with the Essar Group as its principal joint venture partner for the Indian market.

Essar Global Limited (EGL) is a diversified business group spanning the manufacturing and services sectors of Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping & Logistics, and Projects. The group has operations and investments in India, Canada, USA, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and South East Asia and employs 30,000 people worldwide.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.