Escotel launches SMS Edge

Company press release, December 24, 2002

New Delhi

Escotel Mobile Communications Limited (Escotel), the Number 1 cellular service provider in UP (West), Haryana and Kerala, with a subscriber base rapidly approaching the 600,000 mark and over six years of market leadership in all its circles, launched its SMS EDGE branded product for offering an innovative new Direct Marketing medium for the advertisers synchronising it with the biggest event of the new millennium for Indian cricket fans - the Cricket World Cup 2003, today.

The SMS Edge unleashes the full power of the mobile digital medium for the advertisers. It is near real-time, has zero wastage, allows customisation, is clutter free, has premium and captive audience, catches the prospect on the move where ever he may be and is highly cost effective at the same time.

Said Mr. Rajan Swaroop, CEO of Escotel, "The SMS EDGE product is designed so that it can be sponsored by various corporate entities. They can advertise their brand to a premium Escotel customer base in three states most economically, while these ever popular alerts on the Cricket World Cup 2003 go out in a constant stream simultaneously. The customer also benefits because his cost of service also comes down."

Said Mr. Sonjoy Mohanty, Chief Officer - Customer Acquisition and Retention, Escotel, "Cricket is a singular Indian passion and we hope to keep our subscribers fully informed with every development at the World Cup through the SMS EDGE alerts whether they are at work or play and even if they are travelling. At the same time it is a wonderful opportunity for the advertisers to allow a focussed communication to a large database of premium customers and they can utilise to multiply the effectiveness of their existing campaigns at an incremental cost or work out a powerful and focussed new campaign."

With this launch, Escotel becomes the first cellular service provider in the non-metro circles to update its subscriber base on all the major happenings at the Cricket World Cup 2003. These will include the toss update, the 10 overs and 25 overs update, wickets, century/half century, man-of-the-match, hitting a six, post-match alert and special updates/alerts when your favourite player is playing. In addition to all the above information alerts flowing in steady profusion to every Escotel subscriber, the unique World Cup @ 10 update would keep them abreast of the latest points tally and day's matches at 10 a.m. everyday.

The SMS updates/alerts will come in three different categories viz. India Plus, which gives information on all the matches played by India, including the super six, the semi -finals and the finals. In the second category, regular updates will be provided on all the matches played by India and other nations. The last category will update subscribers on all the matches played during the world cup.

Escotel Mobile Communications Limited is a joint venture of Escorts Limited, one of the leading industrial houses in India, and First Pacific Company Limited of Hong Kong. Escorts Limited holds 51 per cent stake in Escotel, while First Pacific holds the balance 49 per cent. Escotel operates cellular phone services in Uttar Pradesh (West), Haryana and Kerala circles and will be launching its services soon in Punjab, Rajasthan, UP (East) and Himachal. At present, Escotel provides coverage in 164 towns, highway coverage in 77 towns and 3000 villages in UP (West), Haryana and Kerala - the widest in these circles. Escotel has established the most extensive roaming tie-ups in the country and provides service in 900 cities and major highways with Automatic Roaming. It also provides international roaming in 46 countries across 78 networks. Escotel has also invested in building up an 1800 km long independent Microwave backbone to ensure reliability of its service and is one of the few operators in the country to do so. Escotel is the first cellular company in the country to provide Service Guarantee made possible through its Total Quality Management practices and is moving towards 6-Sigma Quality by 2003. Escotel, with over 575,000 customers, is the market leader in all its circles of operations.

For further information please contact:

e,Lexicon Public Relations & Corporate Consultants Ltd.

Gaurav Chugh/Pooja Bhatia/Sameer Lal

Tel: 2623 4726, 2622 3099, 2623 6603

Fax: 2623 4725

e-mail: lexiconpr@.vsnl.com