Bharti

airtel makes its television debut in South India - Set to redefine home entertainment with airtel digital TV

• ● Airtel launches digital TV in Tamil Nadu and other key South markets of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry.
• ● World-class technology backed by best-in-class customer care with 24x7 call centre in 8 languages, including Tamil and Telegu.
• ● Universal remote for both Set Top Box and TV that offers enhanced viewer convenience
• ● Better performance during rain due to a larger dish antenna and higher satellite power
• ● Entry-level welcome pack South Silver offers connection at Rs. 2000 only with 1 year subscription free.
• ● South Value Pack at Rs. 99 per month offers a total of 79 channels including World Space radio

Chennai, October 14, 2008: Bharti Airtel today announced the launch of Airtel digital TV, its Direct To Home (DTH) TV service, in Tamil Nadu and other key markets of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry in the southern 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. In the Southern market, Airtel digital TV will be available across 6000 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 southern 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. A variety of attractive limited-period Welcome Offers are available for the customers to choose from, beginning with the South Silver Offer which includes a one time installation charge and 1 year’s subscription free at only Rs. 2000. Special channels packs are available starting with the South Value Pack that at only Rs. 99 per month offers a total of 79 channels which includes not only leading regional TV channels but also World Space radio and various interactive channels.

N Arjun, Executive Director – DTH Services, Bharti Airtel, added, “Given our deep understanding of the 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 a 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 Tamil and Telegu 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 around 80 million customers as of end of September 2008, consisting of 77.48 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/