Idea brings bill payment to your doorstep

IDEA Brings bill payment to your doorstep

Company release

June 23, 2005

Idea launches the service at no extra cost

The single largest concern of the post-paid customer today is that he must pay his bill on time to avoid disconnection of his mobile service. The concern is more of when to go and pay the bill or how best to pay it. Time is almost always the single largest hurdle to timely bill payment. Keeping these considerations in mind, Idea Cellular, India’s cellular service provider has introduced it’s world first innovation in the post paid segment through the effective use of the pre paid channel. Called Pay Easy, the service has been launched today by Idea Cellular. Idea is the only operator in the world to launch this service.

Vikram Mehmi, CEO, Idea Cellular Ltd, explains, “We have a large retail channel in place. We see immense benefit in extending this distribution network, for the purpose of bill paying, to our post paid customers using our flexi charge system.” He adds, “Pay Easy is simple, all the customer has to do is go to his neighborhood retailer and pay his bill amount. The retailer, using his flexi-charge system will alert the Idea payment gateway of the payment. Idea Cellular will then respond to the retailer and the customer through an SMS receipt that his bill has been paid.”

The service will be available across select retailers in its first phase and then be available across the entire retail channel. Pay Easy will be available at no extra cost to the customer. This service enables an Idea customer to pay his bills anytime and anywhere, even while roaming within India or abroad. Earlier, customers had to deposit their payments at specified centers, with pay easy the payment points have increased over 50 fold from the current 1500 plus drop boxes across all our circles.

Pay easy also enables Idea-customers two more options for easy post-paid bill payment.

One is by paying through a bank ATM center with postpaid bill payment options, Banks will accept subscriber mobile No and payment amount for this transaction. Two is to transact the payment via sms. The customer would first have to register with the bank for using this facility of paying postpaid bills via sms. After a successful registration, the subscriber would then send an sms request with the key word and payment amount.

Pay easy is being run on the line of the pre-paid flexi charge system . Pay easy has truly simplified the process of bill payment for customers and has cast away their dilemma of delayed payment.

For more information please contact:

Yusuf uz Zaman, Clea Public Relations; Cell:98916 53547

Sangeeta Kuriakos, Clea Public Relations; Cell: 98915 97468

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

Idea Cellular