15 September 2006

Idea Cellular, India's leading cellular operator entered the Himachal Pradesh market on 6 September 2006. The operator's services are now available in the towns of Shimla, Mandi, Solan Baddi, Kullu and Sundernagar. The services will soon also be extended to other important towns like Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Manali, Kufri, Chail, Kasauli, Parwanoo and Nalagarh.

Idea will herald in a new era in mobile services for customers in Himachal Pradesh. It will provide them a congestion-free network packaged with excellent voice clarity. In addition, they will also have access to world-class customer care and innovative value-added services at revolutionary, affordable tariffs.

The Himachal Pradesh foray is the latest phase of a journey that began in 2001. Idea Cellular is a part of Aditya Birla Nuvo, a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group. With a subscriber base of over 9.7 million across the country in its eight circle operation, Idea controls a portfolio of India's most attractive and mainly contiguous properties including the 12 states of Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai), Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttaranchal, Haryana, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi (inclusive of NCR). Idea's footprint currently covers approximately 45 per cent of India's population and over 50 per cent of the potential telecom market. Idea is also slated to launch services in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (east) by the end of this year.

Idea covers over 1000 towns along with a total highway connectivity of over 10,000 kilometres. Today, there are over 350 direct customer service outlets and a well-entrenched network of over 48,000 retailers and dealers across the country. Each circle with its own dedicated call centre and a single call resolution approach towards the customer is a unique effort provided by any operator.

Idea offers roaming across 560 operators in India and across the world. There is a clear focus to provide unique, distinct, innovative and valuable services to the subscribers. Idea therefore embarked upon an initiative to set up a VAS (value-added services) factory within the company, which conceptualizes and provides tailor-made value-added services.

Idea offers a wide range of cellular services and products. Its post-paid and pre-paid services are supported by a variety of package plans to suit the needs of different customers. Some of these are '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. 'Pay Easy' is bill payment through the effective use of the pre-paid channel. There are also services like M-coupon, M-chat, voice courier, SMS in nine vernacular languages, Say idea, GRPS/MMS, Edge in Idea cellular bouquet.

Idea subscribers have a richer experience while watching movie previews, multimedia messages with video attachments, web-infotainment, high-speed video downloads, Java game downloads and other Internet-based multi-media experiences on their EDGE-enabled mobile phones.

Truly, an Idea can change your life!