IDEA disburses talktime worth crores

IDEA disburses talktime worth crores towards The Lifetime IDEA Programme

It's a LIFETIME of an IDEA. True to its promise India's leading cellular operator IDEA Cellular Ltd. disbursed over Rs. 2.8 crore to 14 lakh Idea Chitchat customers across its eight circles of operations under the first-ever customer loyalty programme for prepaid customers by any operator in the cellular industry. This unique program is applicable to all existing and new pre-paid customers of Idea.

LIFETIME IDEA, a unique loyalty programme allows Bonus Talktime to its customers depending upon how long the customer stayed on IDEA network. With every recharge of Rs. 324/- or higher, a subscriber would get extra talk time that gets automatically credited into his account.

Commenting on the success of LIFETIME IDEA, Mr. Vikram Mehmi, CEO, IDEA Cellular Ltd. said, "Lifetime Idea is a first of its kind, continuous programme and a transparent process to reward our loyal pre-paid customers. We have received an extremely positive response so far indicating that there is an enhanced participation from our customers and an increased commitment from them to be on the network. On one hand we have our customers' longevity increased on our network, while on the other hand we have a bunch of happy customers as they find tremendous value in using prepaid services from Idea. Truly, a win-win situation for both of us!"

The salient features of the programme are as follows:

IDEA also runs a unique loyalty programme for its post-paid customer base, which is uniform across all its eight circles and is centrally administered. This programme is divided into three tiers of Gold, Silver and Royale. This programme offers a variety of benefits ranging from priority access to its call centres, unique gifts and entertainment and privilege offerings in collaboration with the major leading consumer brands in the country.

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 5 million, IDEA Cellular has operations in New Delhi, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttranchal, Haryana, UP-West and Kerala. IDEA Cellular's footprint currently covers approximately 45 per cent of India's population and over 50 per cent of the potential telecom market.

Customer service and innovation are the drivers of this cellular brand. With GPRS currently available on all its networks, for both pre and post paid customers, IDEA Cellular is the first company to demonstrate and commercially launch next generation EDGE technology (a 3G technology) for its Delhi circle.

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 and a voice portal with 'Say IDEA'. A frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans and offering maximum savings to its customers, 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' and other segmented offerings. The most recent offering, 'Lifetime Idea', is the first and only loyalty program, for pre paid customers, introduced by a cellular brand.

Idea has many milestones to its credit — scoring the highest percentage in metros and circle B & C in customer satisfaction, the highest percentage in value-added service and overall sales satisfaction as per the Voice and Data - Customer Satisfaction Survey in December 2004, the largest M&A deal in Indian telecom history through its acquisition of Escotel in 2004 and its Rs. 5000 crore financial closure.

IDEA Cellular Ltd. is headquartered in Pune.

For more information on this press release,

Contact:
Carson Dalton,
IDEA Cellular Ltd.
Cell: 98220 03011