Idea’s “Bill Flash” wins 2006 GSM associations award

Company News

New Delhi, February 22

Idea Cellular Ltd, India’s leading cellular operator is proud to announce that it is the only GSM mobile service operator from India to have won a prestigious award at the, ‘2006 GSM Association Awards’. The award was presented by the GSM Association at the recently concluded 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain in the presence of an august gathering of 850 senior Industry leaders.

GSM Association Awards are by far the most respected Awards in the Telecom World. Infact, they are recognised as the Oscars of GSM mobile Industry because of their enviable reputation as the hallmark of quality. With more than 520 submissions from across the World for the various categories, and just 18 winners, the two phase judging process by an international panel of 75 independent industry and subject matter experts, drawn from the academic, analyst, media and entertainment communities, was an extremely tough one.

IDEA Cellular is also the only Indian GSM operator to have won a GSM Association award so far, ever since the establishment of awards in 1995. The award was presented for IDEA Cellular’s unique “Bill Flash" service in the “Best Billing or Customer Care Solution” category in stiff competition with other International nominees like Orange Communications (SA), Bitfone Corporation (California), MegaFon (Moscow) and T-Mobile (UK) Limited.

“Bill Flash” is a USSD based application wherein the customer dials a five digit string (eg *111# in Delhi) and gets his 'Unbilled Amount and Billing Information' as a flash on his handset screen within 30 seconds - even while roaming! This service, another IDEA first, was developed after research revealed that nearly 40% of customer calls to our call centres were being made to inquire about the billing details. “Bill Flash” has impressed IDEA’s customers across all Circles with its high customer friendliness and usefulness, as the customers now do not need to call up the call centre for their bill details.

Accepting the award, Mr. Vikram Mehmi, CEO, Idea Cellular Ltd, said, “We are proud to receive the GSM Associations Award, the most prestigious awards in the wireless industry. It recognises our key differentiator of high quality customised services and reiterates our commitment to continually innovate our services to meet our customer requirements”.

For further information, contact:

Yusuf uz Zaman,

Clea Public Relations