PR: Vodafone Introduces BlackBerry Service Plans for All in India
Mumbai, India - Vodafone Essar, one of India’s leading cellular services providers, along with Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, today announced the launch of BlackBerry® service plans for its prepaid customers in India. With the new prepaid tariffs, Vodafone customers will now have the flexibility to choose from daily, three day, weekly and monthly offers. Vodafone's BlackBerry® smartphone customers on the new prepaid service plans can enjoy unlimited access to email, BlackBerry® Messenger, instant messaging, social networking and Internet browsing, as well as access to the BlackBerry AppWorld™ application store, at a pocket friendly price starting at Rs. 15 per day.
The launch of Vodafone's BlackBerry prepaid service plans reiterates Vodafone’s promise to make mobile Internet browsing more attractive and economical to all its customers, especially the upwardly mobile youth and enterprising women of today. This service will enable them to do much more on their mobile phones at attractive prices ranging from Rs. 15 per day to Rs. 399 per month. Customers can also access as many as ten supported email accounts such as Hotmail®, Yahoo!® Mail, Google Mail™ and chat on popular services including Windows Live™ Messenger, Google Talk™ and Yahoo!® Messenger. As an additional customer benefit, BlackBerry smartphones can display messages from multiple mailboxes in a single inbox and support the viewing of email attachments including Microsoft Word (.doc), Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt), Microsoft Excel (.xls), and Adobe pdf (.pdf) documents, as well as image files (.jpg, .bmp, .png, .gif, .tiff).
Vodafone BlackBerry Prepaid Plans
Plan
Tariff
Daily Plan
Rs. 15
Three-Day Plan
Rs. 44
Weekly Plan
Rs. 100
Monthly Plan
Rs. 399
Kumar Ramanathan, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone Essar Ltd. "We are extremely pleased to announce the launch of BlackBerry service plans for our prepaid customers. This segment is highly cost conscious and through the democratization of data services, we are providing an entry threshold at an accessible price point of just Rs. 15 per day. We believe that this initiative will appeal to young professionals, students and a broad spectrum of retail customers who are looking for an exceptional experience for messaging, social networking, email, music and entertainment – on the go! RIM is known for its exceptional mobile communications and strong business reputation and we are delighted to continue our long term alliance. We are certain that our prepaid customers will benefit from the compelling functionality of the BlackBerry solution that’s delivered across our reliable and extensive network in India.”
Frenny Bawa, Managing Director, India, Research In Motion said. “RIM is delighted to work with Vodafone to introduce smart and flexible BlackBerry service plans for prepaid customers in India. Vodafone's prepaid customers will now be able to stay connected with friends, family and colleagues around the world.”
Vodafone's prepaid customers can now access information and connect within 30 minutes of notifying Vodafone customer care on their choice of the Vodafone BlackBerry prepaid service plan.
About Vodafone Essar
Vodafone Essar is the Indian subsidiary of Vodafone Group and commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai. The company now has operations across the country with over 109.06 million customers**.
Vodafone is the world's leading international mobile communications group with approximately 341 million proportionate customers as on 31 March 2010. Vodafone currently has equity interests in 31 countries across five continents and around 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit vodafone.com.
The Essar Group is a diversified business corporation with a balanced portfolio of assets in the manufacturing and services sectors of Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping Ports & Logistics, and Projects. Essar employs more than 50,000 people across offices in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
**Figures from Cellular Operators Association of India, 30th June 2010
About Research In Motion (RIM)
Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications. RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to data. RIM’s portfolio of award-winning products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations around the world and include the BlackBerry® wireless platform, the RIM Wireless Handheld™ product line, software development tools, radio-modems and software/hardware licensing agreements. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. RIM is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM). For more information, visit rim.com or blackberry.com.
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