Airtel in pact with Microsoft for mobile MS office

New Delhi, Aug 21: Bharti Airtel Ltd, telecom services provider, today announced an exclusive pact with Microsoft, to unveil the new technology platform -- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 -- targeted at the business consumer and the SME segment in India.

''This new service will give Airtel users who are constantly on the move, access to a host of Microsoft Office applications and other multimedia products on their mobile phones, besides allowing them access to corporate email via direct push technology,'' Bharti Airtel Ltd President Manoj Kohli told reporters here.

The 5.0 technology platform that is seamlessly integrated with the MS Exchange server 2003, is priced at Rs 399 offering 100 MB of space, Rs 599 - 1 GB and Rs 799 - 1.5 GB space, for individuals at the entry level. However, for enterprises, the service will be available at a discount, depending on the number of users in an enterprise.

The service will be available to Airtel customers on the latest HP I-paq and I-Mate handsets ranging anyhere between Rs 16,000 to Rs 65,000, with airtel customers getting preferential hand-set pricing.

''The launch of Windows Mobile 5.0 in India is in line with our stated vision of creating people ready businesses, and is the perfect solution for the global mobile workforce who can access their offcie anyhwere on any device,'' Microsoft India Chairman Ravi Venkatesan said.

Bangalore-based Infosys is the first customer in India for the 5.0 windows mobile solution.

''As the demand for the service catches up, we are hoping to have a larger market with a number of SME and other business customers all over India in the first year itself,'' Mr Kohli said.

Targeting an estimated four million Small and Medium Enterprises potential users, the business solution portfolio will help Airtel users access MS Office including Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Internet Explorer. It has multi-media functionalities like camera, MP3 and video recording and line up business application like self-force automation on their mobile phone.

''We have currently launched the service in 7 cities across India, and will take that number to 20 Tier I and Tier II cities by the end of the year,'' Mr Kohli said.

The service has been launched simultaneously today in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Microsoft Windows mobile solution which was launched four years ago, is today used by 115 mobile operators across 55 countries worldwide, and has 47 device makers.

About 7 per cent of handset sales across the world fall in the high-end category priced at Rs 15,000 ad above, and 2 million high-end phones are sold in India per month, Mr Kohli said while quoting a study.

The 5.0 service is touted to make up for the BlackBerry Wireless solution launched by Bharti two years back, which did not do as expected.

''Though the Blackberry solution did not get as much mass market response as we thought it would, the 5.0 platform cannot be seen as a replacement of the Blackberry service, and is just another dimension of choice we offer to the customer. Both the services will co-exist with each other,'' Mr Kohli said.

The Blackberry was available at an entry fee ranging from Rs 1799 to Rs 2799, on a BlackBerry handset which ranging between Rs 18,990 and Rs 32,990.

UNI