Bharti

Airtel adds to the joy of festive season – launches digital TV

• ● Airtel launches digital TV in Kolkata, Durgapur, Asansol, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneshwar and Guwahati in the first phase
• ● World-class technology backed by best-in-class customer care with 24x7 call centre in 8 languages, including Bengali.
• ● Universal remote for both Set Top Box and TV that offers enhanced viewer convenience
• ● 20% larger dish antenna that offers better performance during rain.
• ● Entry-level offer starting at Rs. 2499/- with 6 months free subscription.

Kolkata, October 13, 2008: Bharti Airtel added to the joy of the festive season with the launch of Airtel digital TV, its Direct To Home (DTH) TV service, in Kolkata and other key markets in the eastern region of India. The launch is part of the 62 city first phase rollout of the service. In addition to the 8 cities, Airtel plans to introduce the service in 20 cities across the region over the next six months. Airtel digital TV will be available across 3000 retail outlets, including Airtel Relationship Centres, to begin with.

According to Mr. Atul Bindal, President - Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel, “DTH is the future of television in India and with Airtel digital TV we bring the best combination of latest technology and exciting content to customers. The eastern region has been a key market for Airtel and over the years we have delighted millions of customers with our telecom services. Now with Airtel digital TV, we plan to deliver a magical in-home entertainment experience to customers in the region.”

Customers in the region can look forward to world-class home entertainment experience with Airtel digital TV that offers over 175 channels including interactive applications, movies on demand, and World space radio to name a few. Entry-level service packs start at Rs. 2499, which includes one time installation charges and 6 months free subscription. Customers can also opt for convenient top-up plans based on their requirements.

N Arjun, Executive Director – DTH Services, Bharti Airtel, added, “Given our deep understanding of Indian customer, we believe we have put together an excellent product that offers great bouquet of popular TV channels, on-demand and interactive content. In line with the Airtel tradition, we have introduced simple to understand tariff plans that will provide great value and choice to the customer. With Airtel’s strong distribution network and focus on customer care, we hope to emerge as a leading player in this segment.”

Airtel digital TV uses the latest MPEG4 standard with DVB S2 technology, which translates into exceptional picture clarity and consistent high quality audio for the customer. This latest technology also enables delivery of more complex interactive content and is High Definition ready. Also, Airtel digital TV uses 20% larger dish antenna that offers better performance during rain.

Besides the latest technology, Airtel digital TV brings many firsts to the DTH segment in India:

• ● Universal remote for both Set Top Box and TV that offers enhanced viewer convenience;
• ● Highest Set Top Box memory enabling more interactive applications;
• ● Exclusive content such as World space Radio;
• ● Interactive applications such as iMatinee (Book cinema tickets), iTravel (Browse and book travel packages), iShop (Shop on TV for your favorite brands), iCity (Get your city’s information) and Widgets (Update yourself on latest stock news).
• ● 8 screen iNews, 2 / 4 screen iSports.
• ● Amazing games with high quality graphics, refreshed every 6 weeks
• ● Audio gain control for uniform audio levels across all channels
• ● Simple and intuitive search
• ● On screen account meter
• ● Last viewed channel in case of power disruption/switch off
• ● Low battery indicator on the screen

These great viewing experience and unique features are backed by 24x7 customer care available in 8 different languages including Bengali and a team of 800 professionally trained service engineers.

About Bharti Airtel Limited:

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is India’s leading integrated telecom services provider with an aggregate of over 77.24 million customers as of end of August 2008, consisting of 74.77 million mobile customers. Bharti Airtel Limited has been voted as India's most innovative company, in a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal.

Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units - Mobile services, Telemedia services and Enterprise services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles. The Telemedia business provides broadband & telephone services in 94 cities and is foraying into the IPTV and DTH segments. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel’s high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 78,540 kms covering all the major cities in the country. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai that connects two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe. For more information, visit http://www.bhartiairtel.in/