Escotel crosses 600,000 customer mark

Company press release, July 2, 2003

New Delhi

Escotel Mobile Communications, the No. 1 cellular service provider in UP(W) & Uttranchal, Haryana and Kerala today announced that that it has crossed the 600,000 customer mark across its three circles. Escotel has also crossed the 2.5 Lacs subscriber mark in UP(West) last month.

Making this announcement, Mr. Rajan Swaroop, CEO-Escotel said, This achievement of 6,00,000 customers mark is an important milestone for us. It clearly reflects the inherent potential within our circles; which is comparable to some of the Category 'A' circles; and the superior quality of our services and our people. Our current EBIDTA margins of over 40% reflect the strong efficiencies and efficacy of our operations of close to 7 years standing as we move forward to investing a further 150 Crores for expansion and upgradation of our GSM network in all the three circles. However more than everything else, what gives us maximum satisfaction is the fact that Escotel is today bringing 600,000 people closer to their loved ones and moving rapidly towards its mission of making cellular telephony a common means of communication and fact of everyday life in our circles."

About Escotel mobile Communications Ltd:

Escotel Mobile Communications Limited is a joint venture of Escorts Limited, one of the 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 has a combined customer base of over 6,00,000 customers. At present, Escotel provides coverage in 164 towns, highway coverage in 77 towns and 3000 villages in U.P. (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 more than 1000 cities and major highways with Automatic Roaming. It also provides international roaming in 53 countries across 90 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 has been recently rated the number 1 Non-Metro cellular service provider in customer satisfaction in the Mobile Users survey 2002 conducted by Voice and Data.

For details contact:

Gagan Deep Bajaj

Escotel Mobile Communications

A-36, MCIE, Mathura Road

New Delhi - 110044

Ph - 55607700