Sachin launches Airtel's games on broadband

New Delhi, July 13: Airtel Broadband and Telephone Services today introduced its games on demand service through broadband, targeting the gaming market projected at 200 million dollar.

The service, launched by cricketing maestro Sachin Tendulkar by playing online rally game, will cost Rs 199 per month.

"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 Airtel Chief Marketing Officer Akshay Kumar.

He added that the number of internet users is growing at a rate of 200 per cent and the growth is concentrated in India and China.

India has 7 million broadband subscribers and 50 million users.

While the broadband market will grow by 50 per cent, the gaming market is expected to grow by 20 per cent in four years.

"With over 85 per cent 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," India Games Founder&Director Vishal Gondal, said.

He further added that the 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.

In this game application, customers 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.

While launching the game application Sachin Tendulkar also met up with the winners of Meet Sachin Contest run by Airtel Broadband&Telephone Services in Delhi.

Airtel is also 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 an affordable price.

InTouch is a Video Postcard service allowsing 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,'' claims the company.

Bharti Airtel Ltd is one of India's major private sector providers of telecommunications services.

In another development for this telecommunication serivices company, Cellebrum, Asia's leading integrated telecom service provider, today announced its tie-up with India's leading telecom operator, Airtel to offer its unique and innovative value added service - Background Music (BGM).

UNI