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Airtel Launches TweetSMS to send/receive tweets on your phone

Vikas SN — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:52:00 +0000

Cashing on the phenomenal growth of Twitter since a year, Airtel is launching a third-party application that allows you to receive Twitter SMS updates directly onto your phone called “tweetSMS”.

Initially when Twitter was launched, they had SMS updates option and they were sending the users their replies and their friends updates via SMS but somewhere in 2008 Twitter stopped sending free SMS updates to users, and instead started teaming up with different service providers around the world to create an economical and easy way to get SMS updates on your phone. In India, Twitter has teamed up exclusively with Airtel to offer the SMS service for an unknown period of time.

Atul Bindal, President, Airtel Mobile Services added that this is one of their consumer-connect initiative to help retain high-end customers and also bring in more subscribers, especially the youth brigrade onto their network. Kunal Bajaj, MD of consulting firm BDA Connect. agreed to Mr. Bindal’s Statement and added that the launch of tweetSMS is clearly intended as a retention and brand image play rather than a revenue play. However, after mobile number portability is introduced, it could help attract other subscribers to the Airtel network.

To signup for tweetSMS, An Airtel subscriber simply has to SMS Signup to 53000 and then follow the instructions that comes via SMS to complete the registration process and start tweeting. This application allows you to stay in touch with your twitter friends and also update your status without needing any internet connection on your phone. However note that the cost would be Rs 1/SMS sent.

(via)

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Bharti Airtel reaches 100 Million Customers

Varun Krish — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:22:44 +0000

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Friday, May 15, 2009 –Bharti Airtel becomes the 3rd largest single country mobile services operator in the world and 6th largest single country integrated telco in the world

– Announces a series of Network augmentation and Customer service initiatives
- To roll out over 100,000 BTS sites across the country
- To establish a State of the Art Customer Service Management Centre
- 100,000 Airtel Service Centres to be set up in rural India by March 2010

Bharti Airtel, Asia’s leading Integrated Telecom services provider, today announced that it has crossed the 100 million customers mark. This milestone makes the company the 3rd largest single country mobile services operator and sixth largest in-country integrated telecom operator in the world.

“The Indian Telecom sector, seen as providing the most affordable services in the world, has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade. We are proud to have led the telecom revolution that made a positive impact on the lives of people in every corner of the country as well as the Indian economy. This remarkable journey to 100 million customers is a testament to the vision and commitment of a company that benchmarks itself with the best in the world”, said Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises. “We dedicate this achievement to the nation. This milestone reiterates the emergence of India as one of the world’s top telecom markets and we are delighted to be at the forefront of its growth. On this occasion, we would like to thank all our customers, partners and the Government of India for their constant support.”

The company had crossed the 75 million customer mark in August 2008 and 50 million mark in October 2007, making it one of the fastest growing telcos in the world. The first 25 million was achieved in July 2006.

Bharti Airtel announced a series of network augmentation and customer service initiatives. On the network front, Airtel will roll out 100,000 BTS sites by this year end to set up wider and deeper network coverage across the country. This will improve network quality and resilience; build redundancies and business continuity, to ensure that Airtel customers continue to experience a world-class seamless network for voice and data services. The company is planning to transform its entire fixed line network to IP/Broadband over a phased manner. This transformation will enable Bharti Airtel’s transformation to Next Generation Networks, offering advanced services like High-speed internet, Triple Play, Media-rich VAS, MPLS, VPN for both Retail and Business customers.

On the customer service front, Airtel has started a set of initiatives to empower the customer and currently its Self Service Option over SMS already has over 100 million hits in a month. It is also leveraging cutting-edge technology to build a state of the art Service Management Centre which will dynamically monitor and manage services to ensure that customers are always kept informed proactively.

Around 60% of Airtel’s customer additions come from rural areas. For the rural customers, Airtel has already set up 14,000 Airtel Service Centres and going forward the company is looking at having over 100,000 such centres across the country by March, 2010.

When contacted Airtel reps did not reveal how many Apple iPhone users have been added.Also they did not reveal the number of gprs /mobile internet users .

Also Airtel has signed up Actor Madhavan and Vidya Balan as brand ambassadors

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Airtel India Ad featuring cute kid

Varun Krish — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:45:47 +0000

You might have seen this Airtel ad on TV which shows a Kid with a Toy phone.

The ad is cute and shows a kid complaining to his Dad on the toyphone about his mom not letting him play

Worth a watch !

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Confirmed: 3G coming at the end of this year in India

Vikram — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:29:05 +0000

Indians were still waiting for 3G mobile services when other countries are forgetting 3G and looking towards 4G mobile technologies. Its time for the Indians to be happy now as, India’s Union Minister of Technology and Communication has made it clear that 3G telecom services in India will be up and running at the end of this year. Let me remind you that few months back the government had said that they will be opening up the 3G spectrum but this news now gives a confirm date. Earlier TRAI had said that only domestic players can bid for the spectrum but now the Union Minister has made it clear that even foreign players can bid for the 3G spectrum. May be AirTel was aware that all this is going to happen so they tested their 3G application across metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Also, Videocon is launching their telecom business soon and has tied up with many players to offer 3G services and don’t forget AirTel is getting the iPhone at the end of 2008, which I think is the 3G version of current iPhone. All these things fit like a jigsaw puzzle, don’t you think so???

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AirTel also to bring iPhone in India

Vikram — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:15:51 +0000

After Vodafone confirming that they will be getting the iPhone to India, now its AirTel who has confirmed that they will be bringing the iPhone to India at the end of 2008 to its customers. AirTel has tied-up with Apple and they will be launching the iPhone in India. Both, the carriers have not confirmed if the iPhone, which they will be bringing will be 3G enabled or not. I think that the iPhone, which AirTel is planning to launch, will be 3G as the company has successfully deployed 3G applications in metro cities of India.
Hindu Business Line reports that, “Bharti AirTel has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to India later this year,” the company said in a statement. Sources, however, said that AirTel may start offering iPhones around Diwali festival to its over 65 million GSM-based subscribers.

iPhones have spurred into the Indian mobile phone grey market and are sold at apprx. $600 a piece. Given the huge subscriber base of AirTel and the unhappy customers of Vodafone, it seems the AirTel-iPhone tie-up will be more successful as compared to the Vodafone-iPhone one. Lets see, time will tell. But this Diwali, giving an iPhone gift with an AirTel connection will be seen as a trend.

SingTel will be distributing the iPhone in APAC with the help of its partners, which also includes AirTel.

iPhone release plans [Via:Textually]

* Singapore (Singtel)

* India (Bharti Airtel & Vodafone)

* Philippines (Globe)

* Australia (Optus & Vodafone)

* Italy (TIM & Vodafone)

* Czech Republic (Vodafone)

* Egypt (Vodafone)

* Greece (Vodafone)

* Portugal (Vodafone)

* New Zealand (Vodafone)

* South Africa (Vodacom)

* Turkey (Vodafone)

* Canada (Rogers)

* Latin America (unspecified but America Movil has the rights)

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Airtel launches Mobile Payment Services

Vikram — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:05:57 +0000

In the wake of growing mobile VAS (value added services) market in India, Airtel has launched a range of mobile commerce solutions in India. For this Airtel has partnered with companies like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Corporation Bank, VISA and mChek. These services promise to bring happiness in the lives of Airtel customers who have a credit or a debit card. Airtel users can now transfer money, pay bills, recharge their phones, buy movie, air and rail tickets instantly by using their mobile phone. No extra charges apart from what you pay to your credit card company. This is indeed a handy service, which has been launched by Airtel and will make Airtel users happy. MChek will develop this solution for Airtel. This indeed shows that VAS are gaining pace in India.

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Vodafone India loosing to Airtel

Varun Krish — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:48:53 +0000

In a recent report released by COAI its evident that Airtel making Vodafone India (formerly Hutch) go nuts !!

Bharti Airtel’s net addition in Jan 08 were better than the previous best !!

Vodafone’s net additions are getting lesser..

So the question is whether Airtel is growing at Vodafone’s expense ?

Would it have been better if Vodafone stayed as Hutch

India now has over 175 million GSM subscribers

Growth is showing signs of decrease ! Mobile Penetration is sky rocketing in the country ..

It might cross 100% if ppl start carrying 2 phones

Read

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Nokia Siemens Networks bags multi-million Euro IVR deal from Bharti Airtel

Varun Krish — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:28:40 +0000

If your on Airtel Network , You can expect a lot of Voice Based services from Bharti Airtel in the coming years

Nokia Siemens has just bagged a multi-million euro deal from Bharti Airtel for deployment of a single Interactive Voice Response (IVR) . Bharti Airtel awarded this pan India contract to Nokia Siemens Networks for deployment of a single Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform across all 23 circles. The three year turnkey and multi-million Euro contract includes designing, planning, systems integration and optimization services to enhance overall customer experience. The new IVR solution will enable Airtel to deliver Services such as Voice SMS, Televoting, Call Management Services (Reach-me service / Missed Call Advisor), Caller Ring back Tone (CRBT) and Voice Portal among others on a faster time-to-market basis, reduce OPEX costs due to optimized network utilization, and increase security by creation of a layered architecture towards Interactive Voice applications.

Nokia Siemens Networks will deploy and integrate the latest state-of-the-art platforms to provide a multi-technology, multi-vendor integrated solution that includes systems integration services. The platforms are HP OCMP (Open Call Management Platform), Video Gateway, Televoting Application and ASR/TTS (Automatic Speech Recognition / Text-to-Speech Engine. The solution will be ready for commercial operation by April 2008 and is expected to scale up to one billion minutes of usage per month in three years for Bharti Airtel.

“Our decision to select Nokia Siemens Networks as our partner in this program is based on their project delivery record,” said Manoj Kohli, President and CEO, Bharti Airtel Limited. “Their single IVR Solution and Voice Service Delivery Platform is based on a best-of-breed integrated approach which will result in cost optimization and increased security, a key prerequisite for building world class services.”

“This contract further strengthens Nokia Siemens Networks’ commitment to enable Bharti Airtel to continuously deliver new services and enhance its customers’ mobile experiences,” said Michael Kuehner, Head, Sub-region India, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Going forward, voice-based Services will be a key revenue generator and service differentiator in the competitive Indian market and Nokia Siemens Networks, with its strong product portfolio and extensive experience, is well positioned to address that need.”

Nokia Siemens Networks provides a comprehensive portfolio of VAS solutions including IP Multimedia Systems, Mobile TV, Intelligent Networks, Music Platforms and Call Control Services. Nokia Siemens Networks is a strong player in value-added services with more than 600 combined references worldwide, over 30 service delivery projects implemented, and 350 service delivery platform customization and integration projects completed.

Looks like Mobile VAS is getting bigger and bigger in India. Bharti is investing heavily in this market no wonder.

via [Press Release]

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