Airtel to Airtel (local and national) at 50 Paise/min

Airtel has launched the ‘Airtel Advantage’ initiative for its Prepaid customers. Airtel has the single largest telecom customer base in the country with over 110 million people. This initiative is aimed at offering the added advantage to this significantly vast Airtel community to be in touch with each other at a remarkably affordable rate of 50 paisa per minute – be it a national long distance call (STD) or a local call.

To enroll in the Airtel Advantage offer, an Airtel you need to visit any Airtel retail outlet and buy the Airtel Advantage Plan.

Airtel introduces Mobile Internet Recharge Voucher

Airtel today announced the launch of two cost-effective mobile internet recharge vouchers, for its Prepaid users in Delhi & NCR. This initiative also marks the first time that recharge for internet usage has been launched on the ‘electronic recharge’ platform.

Airtel launches m-Commerce service on Voice

Airtel has announced the launch of its m-Commerce service - ‘mChek on Airtel’ on the voice platform. This service ensures seamless and secure use of voice (IVR) for m-Commerce transactions for all Airtel mobile customers. The customer has to call 543219 to access the service which is toll free.  The mChek on Airtel service on voice will enable the 100-million-plus Airtel customers to pay Airtel mobile and fixed-line bills, recharge Airtel pre-paid and digitalTV accounts, recharge Delhi-Gurgaon expressway toll tags, pay insurance premiums, buy gifts, tickets and shop using their mobile phones.

• Pay any Airtel landline Bill
• Pay their own postpaid bill
• Pay for others postpaid bill
• Make full or partial bill payment (customer driven)
• Recharge for other prepaid customers
  
• Recharge Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway toll tag ( for Delhi/NCR users )
• Recharge his Digital TV account
• All other merchant payments

Details of Airtel (Kolkata) SMS Packs and VAS

Airtel, India's largest mobile operator seems to be understanding the needs of youngsters. As I am from Kolkata I will cover in this article what Airtel is offering to the youngsters of Kolkata. The mobile giant has introduced many promo packs specially designed for cheap calling as well as they have also brought out some SMS Packs that sure seems to grab anyone's attention. Its the new lingo in mobile communinaction which has grabbed the minds of the Gen-Y. In this article I will cover the Details of SMS Packs and VAS services available for the people of Kolkata and West Bengal.

Airtel and RIM brings New BlackBerry 8520

Airtel and Research In Motion, today launched the BlackBerry Curve 8520, a new addition to the BlackBerry Curve series of smartphones that brings ease-of-use to email, messaging, social networking, music and entertainment for people on the go. Offered at the price of Rs.15,990, the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 will be available nationally from Airtel's authorised outlets across India on August 7th.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 introduces an innovative touch-sensitive trackpad, which makes scrolling and selection smooth and easy for a great navigation experience.It is also the first BlackBerry smartphone to feature dedicated media keys, which are smoothly integrated along the top of the handset giving customers an easy, convenient way to control their music and videos.

In addition to providing the industry’s leading mobile solution for email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and social networking and an easy-to-use, full-QWERTY keyboard for comfortable, accurate typing, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes with powerful multimedia features, useful applications to help users stay organized and productive, full HTML browsing and seamless Wi-Fi support.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone from Airtel measures 109 mm x 60 mm x 13.90 mm (L x W x D) and weighs only 106 grams (including battery). It comes packed with features including:

• Advanced media player for music, pictures and videos, with dedicated media keys (Play / Pause / Mute, Back and Forward) conveniently integrated across the top of the smartphone for a seamless look, plus a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and BlackBerry Media Sync, which makes it easy to quickly synch music from iTunes and Windows Media Player with the smartphone
• Innovative trackpad for easy navigation, enables easy, touch-sensitive scrolling and depresses to make a selection
• 256MB Flash memory and a 512Mhz next generation processor for enhanced performance
• Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, supporting cards of up to 16 GB today and expected to support next generation 32GB cards when available
• Easy mobile access to instant messaging and social networking services like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Windows Live Messenger and BlackBerry Messenger
• Bright, large (2.46” inch), high resolution color display (supports over 65,000 colors)
• Digital camera with zoom and video recording (note: video recording requires microSD memory card, which may be sold separately)
• Full HTML web browser with support for online streaming video (RTSP)
• Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• Quad-band EDGE for global connectivity
• Premium phone features including voice activated dialling and Bluetooth® (2.0) support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals
• BlackBerry Internet Service support, which allows users to access up to 10 supported personal and corporate email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts
• BlackBerry Enterprise Server support, which provides corporate customers with advanced security and IT administration features within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments
• Rechargeable/removable 1150 mAhr battery for up to 4.5 hours of talk time and 17 days of standby time

Airtel customers can sms ‘BB’ to 543210 to register to purchase the BlackBerry Curve 8520 and to get more information about the plans offered with the smartphone.

Airtel to be title sponsor of Champions League T20

Airtel has signed up as the Title Sponsor of Champions League Twenty20 for a period of 5 years starting with the inaugural season in 2009. Airtel signed the deal today with ESPN STAR Sports, the commercial partners of Champions League T20. The first edition of the Champions League will be played in India starting October 08, 2009. A total 12 teams from 7 test playing nations will participate in the inaugural edition. The 16 day league will have 23 Twenty20 matches.

As part of this deal, Airtel will have rights to on ground title sponsorship for a period of 5 years.The tournament would be played across three venues – Bangalore, New Delhi and Hyderabad and will now be called Airtel Champions League Twenty20.

Commenting on this partnership, Shireesh pmghi, Director – Marketing, Bharti Airtel said - “We are delighted to announce our partnership with ESPN on the title sponsorship of Champions League Twenty 20 cricket tournament. We have seen a great synergy between our brand and cricket, since both cater and connect to a wide spectrum of consumer segments. This synergy combined with the success of the Twenty 20 format and the growing popularity of club cricket in India makes this a great opportunity for us to partner.”

Speaking on the occasion, RC Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, said, “We are delighted to have Airtel come on board as the title sponsor of the league.  It is our privilege to have one of the world’s leading integrated telecom services providers join hands with us and I extend a hearty welcome on behalf of the entire ESPN STAR Sports family. We have always believed that this league will stand out as a premier international cricket property in the annual calendar of International Cricket and this landmark partnership vindicates that stand. I am confident that together we will create a wonderful experience for the cricket fan and help make this tournament even bigger in the days to come.”

Airtel introduces "Special 5" Add-on Pack

Airtel has announced a new add-on feature called Special 5 for all its 100 million customers. The 'Special 5' feature empowers Airtel customers to select any five Airtel mobile numbers and stay in touch with them at low rates of 20 paise per minute on local calls and 50 paise per minute on STD calls. This feature is available as an add-on to the customer’s current tariff plans in prepaid.

The 'Special 5' feature gives the customer the flexibility to choose any five numbers of his/her choice across both local and STD.Hence a customer could have three of his local friends and two of his friends outside his state as his Special 5. The customer needs to register the five numbers and enjoy the benefits over and above the current tariff benefits enjoyed. In post paid, it will be available as exclusive 'Special 5' plan.

Prepaid customers can enjoy this benefit by dialling 12141 and registering their special 5 numbers online through the automated IVR. Post paid customers can send a message 'FIVE' to 121 and register on Special 5 plan.

There would be a daily rental component for each number (Re 1 for STD and 50 paise for local Airtel to Airtel mobiles).

Airtel brings Mobshare

Mobshare is a content sharing service that lets users share mobile photos & videos with all their friends over a single MMS. The user registers for the service via SMS & add friends to broadcast list by sending those mobile numbers as SMS. After which, every MMS sent is automatically broadcast to all friends in the list as an SMS with an embedded link to a WAP page. The WAP page displays the photo & has options for friends to comment, forward & download. Start by SMSing to 55563. More features for advanced users by accessing www.mobshare.in from their mobile or PC. Users can also subscribe to Mobshare Channels which is a Rich Content Subscription Service for a whole gamut of content types, right from Bollywood to Sports & News to trivia.

Airtel launched Value Magic recharges for Karnataka

Airtel has launched Value Magic recharges for its customers in Karnataka. These recharges have been designed taking into account the usage patterns of three key segments of users – youth, rural and urban users - in denominations of Rs 149, Rs 249 and Rs 398, respectively. With these recharges, Airtel customers can call any local Airtel mobile at 50 paise per minute and also get one year validity.