New Delhi, July 13, 2006: Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services, India’s largest private broadband and telephone service provider, today introduced its Games on Demand Service as part of its endeavour to offer rich broadband content to its customers. The service was launched by cricketing maestro Sachin Tendulkar by playing online rally game.
Internet has transformed the world and broadband has opened the doorway to a digital world that offers a host of exciting possibilities. Airtel Games on Demand is a suite of online games designed to give consumers a never-before online gaming experience. This service will enable consumers to enjoy unlimited access to blockbuster games through the Airtel Broadband Consumer Portal, for just Rs 199 per month. Airtel has partnered Indiagames to bring this service to its broadband customers.
"Today, customers are looking for rich content to enhance the overall broadband experience. As a leading service provider, we aim to offer the hottest on-demand content through as many channels as possible," said Mr. Akshay Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer, Airtel Broadband and Telephone Services. He added, "Online gaming is fast gaining popularity across the world and with Airtel Games on Demand, we are gearing up to give our customers a cool and enhanced gaming experience with the power of a high-speed network."
Commenting on the launch of the Games on Demand service, Vishal Gondal, Founder & Director – India Games Ltd said, “The Games on Demand service is going to revolutionarize the gaming industry in India. With over 85% of games in India being sold illegally, we believe that with our unparallel price offering, we will significantly expand the segment of legitimate sales and bring the experience of high quality online gaming to millions of gamers in India.”
He further added that our online gaming service would give consumers a legitimate reason to opt in for a broadband service, thus accelerating the growth of the broadband user base in India.”
Airtel Games on Demand is a powerful and easy- to-use application. Customers will be able to take advantage of the speed and reliability of an Airtel broadband connection to get PC CD-ROM games online with a single click. One can choose from a variety of single player and multiplayer games, which include popular titles such as Age of Empires, Star Fury, Driv3R and Flight Simulator.
Sachin Tendulkar also met up with the winners of Meet Sachin Contest run by Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services in Delhi. With this, Airtel fulfilled its promise of providing some of its customers in the city a chance to meet the batting maestro in person.
Airtel is already offering its broadband customers a variety of content services such as music@ease, InTouch and Online Test Preparation packs. With music@ease Airtel broadband customers can download high quality full digital tracks at affordable prices. InTouch is a Video Postcard service allows customers to send video messages to their loved ones. Online Test packs from Airtel offer customers online competitive tests for GRE, GMAT, SAT and MBA.
About Bharti Airtel Limited
Bharti Airtel Limited is one of India’s leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of 24.58 million customers as of end of June‘06, consisting of more than 23.07 million mobile customers. The company was the first private operator to provide mobile services in all the 23 circles in India. The company also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 90 cities. The company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable (owned by an associate company) connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company is a part of the consortium, which jointly owns and has developed the next generation undersea cable system SEA-ME-WE-4. The company provides reliable end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers by leveraging its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. For more information, visit http://www.bhartiairtel.in
About Indiagames Ltd.
Indiagames Ltd is India's #1 mobile and online games company and one of the leading global mobile game publishers. The Company is engaged in publishing and developing games across various platforms like Online, Mobile and consoles. The Company has partnered with leading publishers like Microsoft, Atari, Playfirst, Alawar, Merscomm, Cenega, Meridian, Techland, amongst others, to bring premium games to India. Given that over 85% of games in India are sold illegally, Indiagames believes that with its unparalleled price offering it will significantly expand the segment of legitimate sales and bring the experience of high quality gaming to millions of gamers in India. Indiagames’ products are developed and published across leading technology platforms and are distributed through partnerships with major mobile operators in over 67 countries. In India, the Company also distributes games via its consumer focused website http://www.indiagames.com. Indiagames has over 270 employees and offices in Mumbai, London, Los Angles & Beijing. Key investors include TOM Online Inc. (NASDAQ: TOMO; HK GEM stock code: 8282) - a leading wireless Internet company in China providing value-added multimedia products and services, Adobe Inc., and Cisco Systems Inc
