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Airtel announces strategic tie-up with Microsoft - Becomes first
Telco to offer Microsoft’s latest Windows Mobile 5.0 technology
in India
· Strategic partnership with Microsoft to reinforce &
strengthen Airtel’s innovation charter
· Airtel enhances its business solutions portfolio with Microsoft
Windows Mobile 5.0 - a powerful platform that delivers a comprehensive
mobile experience beyond just email
· Familiar MS Windows user interface big advantage for users
· A huge opportunity with a large enterprise segment running
predominantly on the MS Exchange server
· An estimated 4 million SMEs potential users
New Delhi, August 21, 2006: Reinforcing its commitment to innovation,
Bharti Airtel, India’s leading telecom services provider, today
announced a strategic tie up with Microsoft. This partnership is
expected to deliver great value to all Airtel customers spanning
mobile, landline and Broadband services.
Today, Airtel and Microsoft launched Microsoft’s Windows Mobile
5.0 platform that provides an opportunity to all Airtel customers
to access corporate email via direct push technology. Airtel becomes
the first operator in India to offer this technology to its customers.
The service will deliver
powerful business applications and multimedia experience to all
Enterprise and SME customers across India.
Airtel’s tie up with Microsoft is part of its strategic innovation
strategy that has been the cornerstone of the company’s objective
to redefine the telecom experience of its 25 million plus customers.
The tie-up also comes close on the heels of India’s first ever
comprehensive ‘Service Delivery Platform’ that was recently
announced by Airtel.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Airtel
Ltd., said “Our partnership with Microsoft reinforces and strengthens
our commitment to innovation. This is a great beginning for two
leaders in the industry to come together and forge a strategic partnership
with a single
minded focus of providing value to the end user. It has always been
our aim to be a step ahead of customer expectation and this alliance
will further help us achieve this objective and consolidate our
leadership position.”
The Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 platform offers a host of
applications, with a never-before ease of use. All Airtel users
will now have access to MS office (Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint,
Internet Explorer), multi-mediafunctionality (camera, MP3, video
recording) and Line of Business applications like Sales Force Automation
on their mobile phones. With this latest innovative offering, Airtel
has significantly enhanced its business solutions portfolio.
Elaborating on Microsoft’s value proposition for customers,
Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India, said, “The launch
of Windows Mobile 5.0 is in line with our stated vision of creating
People Ready Businesses. Microsoft believes that people are the
most critical asset of any business and empowering them with the
right software is an imperative to deliver greater business value.
Windows Mobile 5.0 is the perfect solution for the global mobile
workforce to work in an always on environment and better organize
their work and personal lives.”
“The alliance with Bharti Airtel reflects the synergy between
two industry leaders, both focused at innovating to help individuals
realize their true potential. With this association Bharti Airtel
thus joins 115 existing mobile operators who currently offer the
Windows Mobile solution worldwide,”
he further added
This platform is viable for broader adoption by enterprise customers
as a large number of such organizations in India use MS Exchange
as their core platform for mail applications within their enterprise.
Windows Mobile 5.0 is seamlessly integrated with MS Exchange server
2003. In addition, it does not require additional middleware or
servers and offers a cost effective e-mail push environment.
This tie-up also gives Airtel the opportunity to tap into the estimated
4 million SME market share in India. With anytime access to MS Office,
it offers a compelling proposition to users from these segments
that are constantly on the move. Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 will
be available to Airtel customers on the latest HP I-Paq and I-Mate
handsets. Airtel enterprise customers will
also get the benefit of preferential hand-set pricing. A dedicated
after-sales support, owing to the back to back SLA with all its
partners, ensures uninterrupted services exclusively for Airtel’s
customers.
About Bharti Airtel Ltd.
Bharti Airtel Limited is one of India’s leading private sector
providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of 25.89
million customers as of end of July‘06, consisting of 24.34
million mobile customers. Bharti Airtel has been being ranked among
the top 10 best performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek
IT 100 list. The company was the first private operator to provide
mobile services in all the 23 circles in India. The company also
provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 92 cities.
The company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services
with national and international long distance services. The company
also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects
the submarine
cable (owned by an associate company) connecting Chennai and Singapore.
The company is a part of the consortium, which jointly owns and
has developed the next generation undersea cable system SEA-ME-WE-4.
The company provides reliable end-to-end data and enterprise services
to the corporate customers by leveraging its nationwide fiber optic
backbone, last mile connectivity
in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth
access through the gateways and landing station. For more information,
visit http://www.bhartiairtel.in
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide
leader in software for personal and business computing. The company
offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower
people through great software-any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft has been in India since 1990 and employs over 4000 people
across its offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai,
Hyderabad and Pune.
For further press information on Bharti Airtel, please contact:
Deeba Ali / Prem Subedi / Nidhi Mehra
Rediffusion DYR - Public Relations
Ph: 011-41681107/ 41669349
Fax: 011-41669350
Mobile: 9810509973 / 9810868873 / 9818331654
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