Page 9 - Sphere No.12 (Aug 2004)

SPHERE 7
H U T C H I S O N U P D A T E S
Hutch Acquires Aircel
Subject to approvals, Hutchison Essar in
June acquired 100% of Aircel Ltd and
Aircel Cellular Ltd (together Aircel)
from Sterling Infotech Ltd .
Aircel operates GSM 900 cellular licences
in the city of Chennai and the state of
Tamil Nadu and had over 1.1 million
subscribers as of May 31, 2004.
Hutchison Essar already operates a GSM
1800 licence in Chennai.
Plug-n-Talk
Hutch has launched a value-added cour-
tesy service in the form of around 100
battery-charge kiosks placed in strategic
positions such as airports, railway and
bus stations. All the “recharge zones”
have a selection of plugs for different
handsets, so even cus-
tomers
of rival
compa-
nies can
use the
facilities.
Million Milestone
Hutch on May 24 announced that it had
exceeded one million subscribers in
Gujarat. Hutch doubled its customer
base in a year to become the first mobile
service provider in the state to achieve
this milestone.
Hutch in Gujarat is the third circle in the
Hutch fold to cross the one million
mark, after New Delhi and Mumbai.
Hutch Debuts in Punjab
Hutch launched its services in Punjab
on July 13 with the latest range
of multimedia mobile services, includ-
ing GPRS-based services like push2talk,
mobile gaming and Click&Print MMS,
and state-wide customer service sup-
port. Punjab has the highest mobile
penetration amongst the Indian states.
Hutchison Max
Telecom (HMTL)
on June 14 filed with India’s Foreign
Investment Promotion Board an
application for the Hutchison
Essar Telecom group of companies
to consolidate its various telecom
interests in India under a single entity.
The application will allow the share-
holders of Hutchison Essar Telecom
(Delhi), Fascel (Gujarat), Hutchison
Telecom East (Calcutta), Hutchison
Essar South (AP, Karnataka, Chennai,
Punjab, UP West, West Bengal) and
Aircel Digilink India (UP East,
Rajasthan, Haryana) to transfer all their
shares in these companies to HMTL,
thereby becoming shareholders
of HMTL.
The consolidation will create one of the
largest mobile operations in India. The
combined subscriber base at the end
of May was 5.6 million covering
approximately 56% of the population
and about three-quarters of its pur-
chasing power.
INDIA
Hutch to Consolidate India Operations
T E L E C O M S
Push2Talk
Hutch on May 27 launched push2talk,
which combines a walkie-talkie
experience with instant messaging, SMS,
MMS and voice messaging.
The service is the result of a partnership
between Hutch and Fastmobile, and is the
first such service to be available nationally.
E-mails on the Move
Hutch on May 5 launched Microsoft
Outlook on Hutch, a unique corporate
solution developed jointly by Hutch and
Microsoft that allows Hutch users to
access their office e-mails on their mobiles.
Hutchison India, along with agency
Ogilvy & Mather, completed a
virtual clean sweep at the Abby
Awards 2004 for creative excellence
in advertising, winning four Golds,
three Silvers and three Special
Awards of Excellence.
Applause