Axis Bank partners with IDEA Cellular for Financial Inclusion
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Wednesday, 15 December 2010 14:21
- Written by Puneet Jain
Axis Bank and IDEA Cellular today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), whereby Idea will act as a ‘Business Correspondent’ of Axis Bank to provide an entire range of financial products and services offered by the Bank, through the mobile operator’s retail outlets.The association will be flagged-off with a ‘remittance pilot’ between Dharavi in suburban Mumbai and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, which will enable money transfer using the mobile platform. Idea and Axis Bank will also explore extending the association to include other banking products and services such as savings, credit, micro insurance, micro SIP and micro pensions in a phased manner. On completion of the successful pilot, a full range of banking services is proposed to be launched across the pan-India footprint of IDEA Cellular, subject to receipt of all statutory and regulatory approvals.
Mr. S K Mitra – President, Agri Business & Rural Banking - Axis Bank, while speaking about the project said, “As a total solutions bank, we are always exploring options to deliver improved and convenient services to customers across all strata of the society. We have already undertaken urban and rural financial inclusion initiatives in parts of India on a POS platform through our Business Correspondents. We were keen to adopt additional delivery channels to drive financial inclusion and were particularly keen on a mobile based channel, considering the reach and the low cost service delivery platform. Since only 41% of the adult population have bank accounts, whereas more than 70% of adults own a mobile connection, associating with a telecom service provider looked to be the apt choice.”
Mr. Mitra further added, “IDEA Cellular has the necessary reach and adaptability to drive the initiative and we are happy to be associated with IDEA Cellular in this Pilot Project. Idea’s deep-rooted retail distribution network is ideal for our ‘Branchless Banking’ model.”
Talking about the project, Mr. Ambrish Jain, Director - Operations, IDEA Cellular said: “We are pleased to partner Axis Bank in its Financial Inclusion initiative through a pilot based on mobile-enabled low-cost banking service model. Idea’s mobile technology platform will enable the provision of a gamut of banking products and services to the end customer, and allow cash transactions at select Idea retail points.”
During the ‘remittance pilot’, a remitter in Dharavi will be able to remit money back home to his family in Allahabad, through the mobile platform. The remitters have the option of remitting money to the beneficiary through either of the following routes:
- Through Account to Account Transfer whereby the remitter, having an account with Axis Bank, remits money to the beneficiary who also has an account with Axis Bank;
- Through the IMT module developed and provided by Empays Payments Systems whereby the remitter, having an account with Axis Bank, remits money to the beneficiary, who has a registered mobile connection, but need not have a banking account.
- As a part of the association, IDEA Cellular will support Axis Bank’s Financial Inclusion initiatives whereby Idea will act as a Business Correspondent (BC) of Axis Bank and offer the entire range of financial products and services through its retail outlets that will act as Customer Service Points or CSPs.
Idea readies for MNP with ‘Switch to Idea’ campaign
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Thursday, 25 November 2010 08:38
- Written by Puneet Jain
With the roll out of ‘Switch to Idea’ campaign, IDEA Cellular has affirmed that it is ready to enable Mobile Number Portability (MNP) on its network. Post the announcement of MNP launch on November 25th (i.e. today) from Haryana circle, by the Government, Idea is trying to make mobile consumers aware of the upcoming mobile portability service, through its latest campaign.
The new advertisement from Idea which broke on TV recently, shows Idea’s Brand Ambassador, Abhishek Bachchan proposing a new idea to unhappy mobile users to switch to a network that offers better services, better products & tariffs, and better network, through the message - ‘No Idea, Get Idea’.
MNP entitles a mobile subscriber to switch from the existing cellular service provider to any other operator, while retaining the mobile number. The first circle where MNP is slated to be launched on November 25th is Haryana, where Idea will allow mobile subscribers to join its network, soon after the launch.
According to Mr. Rajat Mukarji, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, IDEA Cellular, “Idea is ready to enable Mobile Number Portability on its network. We have made substantial investment in network, technology, processes etc. to allow mobile subscribers to switch network and move to Idea, post MNP. Idea has taken the lead in spreading awareness about MNP, amongst mobile consumers across the country”.
Idea Cellular ties up with Indian Railway to 'Break the Language Barrier'
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Thursday, 04 November 2010 10:27
- Written by Mihir Patil
Idea Cellular announces association with Indian Railways, to promote ‘Break the Language Barrier’ campaign and Idea Language Helpline to help its passengers traveling to other parts of the country inline with the ongoing theme campaign, ‘Break the Language Barrier’. As part of this program, the Idea Language Helpline is being promoted across Indian Railways network for a week. Idea Language Helpline jingle will play on 139, creating a brand connect with millions of callers who call on this number.
Idea Language Helpline jingle will play on the IVR of Railway’s inquiry no. 139, for a period of 7 days starting 29th October. The caller will hear one jingle of 10 seconds when call connects with IVR, followed by a jingle of 15 seconds when call is transferred to a human Interface. In the South circles, the jingle will be in English and in rest of India it will be in Hindi.
Idea Cellular through this initiative wants to connect with crores of travelers who would be using this one of the world’s most extensive rail network during the festive season and introduce the innovative ‘Language Helpline’ in order to assist them in their communication with the people in new city and areas. With the ongoing festive season in India Indian Railway traffic goes up substantially, with people traveling into different towns and cities to meet and greet their near and dear ones across different cities. This means that through this initiative, Idea Jingle would be heard by a large base of audience estimated around 1 crore callers in these 7 days, across the country.
Idea’s new campaign aims at offering a solution to millions of Indians who move out of their homes for - Career, Education, Travel and other prospects in life; or need to communicate with people talking different languages in their own surroundings - to help them adapt to the change in surroundings and connect better with people speaking other languages.
Idea has launched country’s first ‘Language Helpline’ which will offer conversational support to callers, in 16 languages. Idea’s Language Helpline is available across all 22 telecom circles and in 16 Indian languages – Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani and Urdu.
To target the flyers, Idea has associated with Jet Airways for promotion of Idea Language Helpline on Jet Airways and Jet Konnect flights. As part of this, Idea Language Helpline will be talked about in in-flight announcements informing passengers that they can call on this no. for help with translations in local language when they reach their destination. Additionally, Language Helpline brochures will be placed in the seat jackets in flights during this month long activity aimed at reaching on to 18-20 lakh passengers. These brochures carry translations of few common words and phrases in 16 different languages and can be useful reference for anybody travelling to a new place in India where a different language is spoken.
Idea Cellular launches Festive packs on the occasion of Diwali in Gujarat
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Friday, 29 October 2010 18:13
- Written by Mihir Patil
IDEA Cellular, one of the oldest operator of Gujarat, with over 60 lakh subscribers, has launched a Festival benefits pack for new customers offering special tariff and additional benefits of SMS and GPRS usage.Mobile consumers who choose to connect with the Idea network this festive season will get to enjoy the Festival benefits pack which has in-built tariff advantage of all local Idea to Idea calls at the rate of 1 paisa per 2 seconds. The pack also offers SMS benefit of a whopping 73,000 Free SMS for a period of one year and 200 MB of GPRS usage absolutely free for 7 days.
Additionally, Idea subscribers can also opt for a wide range of special recharges with higher consumer benefits such as discounted Night Calling free for a year; 12,900 Free SMS; 1,290 MB of free Data usage; and STD calls for as low as Re. 1 per 3 minutes, during the festive season.
Idea’s Festival benefits pack is available across all retail outlets in Gujarat.
Idea launches online reality show- Idea Language Champion
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Thursday, 21 October 2010 11:22
- Written by Mihir Patil
IDEA Cellular has been in the news for quite a time now because of their campaigns which are heavy on words and ideas but are these campaigns actually helping the normal mobile subscriber in anyway? Well, keep thinking until we share this news with you. !dea has now launched an Online Reality Show – Idea Language Champion (on www.idealanguage.co.in) to demonstrate that networking on the internet can also help millions of people communicate with those speaking a different language, without actually knowing the language.Idea Language Champion comprises of a range of online tasks and quizzes in different languages which participants would need to solve at every step of the game. The contest allows users to gather information from their network of friends, using various social media platforms like Facebook & Twitter. For eg. Participants are required to post the task questions as status messages on Facebook where they need to seek response from their network of friends whereas on Twitter participants can broadcast the task question to their followers and seek help.
Through the various levels of the online contest, participants will get a virtual tour of different states of India where they would come across questions and situations to communicate in different languages. Each stage presents a situation based task in a particular state. Participants can accumulate points for their ability to network with more and more friends who can help them out with the language barriers they come across during the contest by commenting on their Facebook status updates.
The short listed candidates will then get a chance to establish their candidature for the 4 finalists in Phase II of the competition. For this, they need to upload a video projecting ‘Why should he/she be chosen the Idea Language Champion?’ with few sentences in his/her mother tongue. Based on their content uploads, the 4 finalists from the online contest will be selected by the judges.
The four finalists will be sent out to four different locations in the country giving them an opportunity to demonstrate how they can overcome language barriers while communicating with others speaking a different language. Each user will be given an Idea connection through which they will be able to network with their friends and document their quest from the real world situations that they face during the on-ground tasks. Finalists will get to network and update with over 1 lakh members on the Idea Fan Page on Facebook and other social networking platforms, besides their own community on these sites.
The most ‘Liked’ and ‘Supported’ candidate, from this 5 day on-ground quest, will get the winner title of the Idea Language Quest. The winner will walk away with a free return air tickets and hotel stay for 3N/4D for 2 people in Bangkok. Each of the 4 finalists will get free domestic return air tickets with 5 days hotel stay in the city where they traveled during their onground leg of the competition. Cleartrip has been chosen as the travel partner of Idea Language Contest where they will also offer discount vouchers worth Rs. 1000 each to registered users.
Now that we have shared this news with you, do you really think this campaign is useful enough to the subscribers or is just one of the useless campaigns of !dea where customers get nothing but these non productive ideas. !dea should concentrate more on providing competitive tariff rates instead of making "sirjee" feature on television often (pun intended!)
Idea Cellular launches Special 'Navratri' Packs in Gujarat
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Monday, 11 October 2010 15:59
- Written by Puneet Jain
Joining in the celebration of Navratri season, IDEA Cellular, has launched special Navratri offers.Idea’s special Night Calling Pack has been launched which provides 220 Minutes of Free local Idea to Idea Night calling. Thus, customer gets an effective rate of just 10 paise/minute from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am. This special offer can be availed with Idea’s new recharge of Rs. 22 which comes with a validity of 15 days.
Idea has also introduced other night packs during the season which offer call rates as low as Re. 1 per 20 minutes with a recharge of Rs. 17 and a validity of 30 days.
During the Navratri season, Idea subscribers will also get to choose from a multitude of SMS vouchers that have been introduced at various price points of Rs. 16, Rs. 34, and Rs. 56, which offer customers the benefits of 160, 400 and 1000 Free SMS, respectively. Idea has also designed a special array of SMS packs priced at Rs. 24, Rs. 44 and Rs. 84, that enable the subscribers to send out 500 Free SMS daily for a period of one week, a fortnight and a month, respectively.
Idea Cellular comes up with new VAS and Special ISD Tariff Voucher for Delhi & NCR
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Friday, 08 October 2010 10:08
- Written by Puneet Jain
Idea Cellular has announced new Services for Delhi & NCR reason. Idea Cellular's new initiatives are - Idea City Life and Idea Inroamer.‘Idea City Life’ is an information guide on the city of Delhi. Under this service, two Regular SMS Alerts relevant to the city on topics like Restaurant Reviews, Prominent Sale & Exhibitions, Theatre Schedules & Information, Movie Reviews and Night Life will be sent to the user, everyday. Additionally, there will be two alerts on the medal tally and games updates. Every SMS alert will carry a USSD code which can be dialed to know the Hot Deals, Movie timings/reviews, Nightlife, Eat Outs and Plays/Concerts relevant in the city. Idea subscribers can dial *777*11# to subscribe to this service for a price of Rs. 40 and validity of one month.
‘Idea Inroamer Infoline’ is an IVR based service with SMS integration, offering its users (both local and international inroamer) an opportunity to search for the location of Shopping malls, ATM’s, Restaurants, Coffee shops and other service outlets in the city. The service offers region wise, state wise and city wise information to the users. Roaming customers can search their location in the city where they are roaming, on their mobile phones. This service is a guide for the roamers in select cities across India, including New Delhi. The infoline can be accessed by dialing 56665 for Rs. 3/min for National Roamers, and Rs. 49/min for International Roamers.
Idea Celluar also introduced Special ISD Tariff Vouchers to make cheaper calls to CommonWeatlh countries and US & Canada. With a recharge of Rs. 57, Idea subscribers can get ISD tariff of 1 paisa/second for calls to US and Canada, with a validity of 30 days. The tariff of 1p/sec would be applicable for first 300 min and thereafter tariff of Rs 1.99/min would apply. Other ISD tariffs are - UK @ Rs 6.4/min; UAE/ Saudi/ Qatar/ Bahrain @ Rs. 11/min; UK (Mobile) @ Rs 10/min; Australia/ New Zealand (Fixed) @ Rs. 10/min; Nepal/ Pakistan/ Bangladesh @ Rs. 11/min; and Afghanistan/ Cameroon @ Rs 15/min.
Idea Cellular launches Language Helpline - Break the Language Barrier
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Thursday, 07 October 2010 11:01
- Written by Puneet Jain
I am sure you must have seen that Loooong Idea Cellular Ad in which Sirji (Abhishek Bachchan) suggests four people to use mobile phone to seek conversational help when away from home in a different state. Why am I referring about that Ad, You Ask? Well the reason is Idea Cellular has launched somewhat similar service in lines of that Ad, Idea has announced ‘Language Helpline’ which will offer conversational support to callers.
Idea’s Language Helpline is available across all 22 telecom circles and in 16 Indian languages – Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani and Urdu. Language assistance will be offered on the most spoken language(s) in the circle. The helpline number is the Idea customer care number of that circle. The best part is as it is Idea Customer Care number so it can be accessed by Idea customer, offcourse, but people using Mobile operators other than Idea can also access this servcie.
Idea’s customer care IVR has been revamped to incorporate the Language Helpline. Callers seeking assistance on language will be directed to the Language Helpline through the IVR menu in a user-friendly manner. A team of agents who understand and speak the local language have been deployed to assist callers.
Idea customers will be charged 50 paisa per 3 minute for calling the Language Helpline and normal call charges will apply for those who want to avail this service but are not Idea customers.
am sure you must have seen that Loooong Idea Cellular Ad in which Sirji (Abhishek Bachchan) suggests four people to use mobile phone to seek conversational help when away from home in a different state. Why am I referring about that Ad, You Ask? Well the reason is Idea Cellular has launched somewhat similar service in lines of that Ad, Idea has announced ‘Language Helpline’ which will offer conversational support to callers.Idea’s Language Helpline is available across all 22 telecom circles and in 16 Indian languages – Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani and Urdu. Language assistance will be offered on the most spoken language(s) in the circle. The helpline number is the Idea customer care number of that circle. The best part is as it is Idea Customer Care number so it can be accessed by Idea customer, offcourse, but people using Mobile operators other than Idea can also access this servcie.
Idea’s customer care IVR has been revamped to incorporate the Language Helpline. Callers seeking assistance on language will be directed to the Language Helpline through the IVR menu in a user-friendly manner. A team of agents who understand and speak the local language have been deployed to assist callers.
Idea customers will be charged 50 paisa per 3 minute for calling the Language Helpline and normal call charges will apply for those who want to avail this service but are not Idea customers.
Here is a list of Language Helpline Numbers
| Sr. No | Circle | Prod-Numbers | Language Support |
| 1 | Andhra Pradhesh | 9848012345 | Telugu |
| 2 | Madhya Pradesh | 9826012345 | Hindi |
| 3 | Maharashtra | 9822012345 | Marathi |
| 4 | Gujarat | 9824012345 | Gujarati |
| 5 | Rajasthan | 9887012345 | Rajasthani |
| 6 | UP(E) | 9889012345 | Bhojpuri |
| 7 | UP(W) | 9837012345 | Hindi, Urdu |
| 8 | Mumbai | 9702012345 | Marathi |
| 9 | Delhi | 9891012345 | Hindi |
| 10 | Haryana | 9812012345 | Hindi |
| 11 | Himachal Pradesh | 9882012345 | Hindi |
| 12 | Bihar | 9708012345 | Hindi |
| 13 | Orissa | 9090012345 | Oriya |
| 14 | Karnataka | 9844012345 | Kannada |
| 15 | Punjab | 9814012345 | Punjabi |
| 16 | Tamil Nadu | 9092012345 | Tamil |
| 17 | Kolkata | 9088012345 | Bengali |
| 18 | West Bengal | 9093012345 | Bengali |
| 19 | Jammu & Kashmir | 9086012345 | Kashmiri |
| 20 | NESA | 9089012345 | Hindi, English |
| 21 | Assam | 9085012345 | Assamese |
| 22 | Kerala | Prepaid 9847112345 | |
| Postpaid 9847012345 | Malayalam |
Idea Cellular introduces new daily packs at Rs. 5 in Delhi & NCR
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Monday, 27 September 2010 12:32
- Written by Puneet Jain
IDEA Cellular has announced daily packs for its nearly 30 lakh subscribers in Delhi & NCR region. The new daily packs come allows Idea prepaid customers to choose from an array of services such as Idea to Idea night calling, Free Local/STD minutes and SMS & GPRS offerings.Idea has launched three new Daily Packs which offer 11 minutes of free calling (Local & STD); Free 60 minutes of local Idea night calling (11 pm to 8 am); and a pack which allows the young users to send free 125 SMS’ nationally or locally everyday. Each of the 3 offerings on Idea Daily Packs will be charged at just Rs. 5 per day.
To avail the range of daily packs Idea prepaid subscriber need to dial Dial *369# and choose any one or multiple packs from the menu of attractive offers. Rs. 5 will be deducted from the main balance and benefit validity will be for 1 day for Local/STD and SMS pack, and 2 days in the case of Night calling pack
Idea has also launched a daily GPRS pack which offers upto 50 MB of free internet usage at just Rs. 5 per day. For high users, Idea has introduced a GPRS pack offering upto 150 MB of internet usage valid for 3 days with a nominal charge of Rs. 13; and upto 2 GB usage with Rs. 98 pack for a period of one month. Charges of 2 paise/ KB will applicable, post free usage limit.
Idea launches "!dea Candy Voucher", offers local calls at 30 paise/min in Rajasthan
- Category: Idea Cellular
- Wednesday, 22 September 2010 12:10
- Written by Mihir Patil
!DEA cellular, has launched a new ‘Idea Candy Voucher’ in Rajasthan, which gives freedom to make all local calls to any mobile or landline network in the state, at just 30 paise/min or 1 paise/2 sec depending on the plan. The new Idea Candy Voucher can be availed on both, per minute and per second billing plans. Idea prepaid users would now be able to make calls to all mobile and landline networks at just 30 paise/min on the per minute billing plan, and 1 paisa/2 sec on the per second plan with the "!dea Candy Voucher" which is priced at Rs. 10 and comes with a validity of 30 days from the date of recharge. This voucher will be available at all !dea outlets across the state.
This is a good move by !dea cellular as they strive hard to strengthen their place in a very competitive telecom market. New entrants are already offering calls at lower rates in this state but the price with which this voucher comes will find some buyers in Rajasthan.
