airtel

Airtel has announced the launch of SMS2.0 service, the world’s first upgrade to SMS.

The product developed by Affle enables users to get content services along with enhanced messaging features.

It converges messaging, content, and contextual advertising into one application, which will reside as the default SMS application on the customer’s mobile handset.

It is a free upgrade to the regular SMS application. The SMS charges remain unchanged.

Anuj Kumar, executive director (South Asia) Affle, said, “India is a exciting mobile market and in Airtel we have found a great partner to take our services to users. It would redefine the messaging experience and become entry window to the world of Mobile Internet.”

With the launch of its 8Mbps Broadband service, Airtel has become the first service provider in the country to offer such high speed Broadband.

Especially when existing Broadband speeds are not more than 256 KBps to 4Mbps.

With 8Mbps, Airtel Broadband customers will now be able to browse multiple windows even as they download heavy files, view streaming videos, enjoy online gaming, chat, email, and so on. Airtel claims customers will no longer need to wait for videos to get buffered while watching streaming videos.

Airtel further strengthened its non-mobile services today by introducing 8Mbps broadband Internet access in India targeting mass customers, retailers and SMEs.

“Non-mobile part of Bharti is a strong engine of growth. Over the years we have invested around over a billion dollar in non-mobile service and it is a critical part of our operations now. We continue to further strengthen the Internet space,” said Atul Bindal, president, Bharti Airtel Limited, briefing the media here today.

Airtel Broadband and Telephone Services (Airtel B&TS) has launched Wi-Fi service for its customers in South India at a monthly rental rate of Rs 99.

The offer will give Airtel broadband customers wireless access to broadband of upto 2 mbps speed, Airtel said in a statement.

Shamik Dass, COO - South, Airtel B&TS, said, "With the year 2007 being declared as the Year of Broadband and the increasing broadband penetration in the country, on-line life styles have become more prevalent and wireless access more pervasive.”

Connecting 2.5 million NRIs to India

Bharti Airtel today announced its foray into the United States of America with the launch of Airtel CallHome service for non resident Indians.

Supporting its success in India, the foray into the USA marks an important chapter in the growth of the $ 3.8 billion company.

After leading the telecom sector in India, Airtel will take its telecom expertise to benefit over 2.5 million NRIs based in the US. They will now be able to call their loved ones back in India at rates as low as 7.9 cents a minute. All they need to do is go to the Airtel website, create their personal account and download the calling service online, the telecom service provider said in a statement.

India’s carriers are now some of the fastest growing carriers in the world. So is the Value Added Services (VAS) market here. But it is sad to see that most of the carriers operate strict walled gardens and are extremely slow in launching newer services with the help of entrepreneurs independently. The best that they generally do is that they take up the service within their own brand within their “walled” gardens. Airtel operates a walled service called Airtel “Live” so does reliance with their service “RWorld”.