Kolkata, November 10, 2004

Hutch, India's leading Mobile service company launched its services in West Bengal & Sikkim with the widest cellular network in the region. It also announced a special range of Bengali-language value added services such as Voice Response. The launch of Hutch in West Bengal & Sikkim was announced by Asim Ghosh, Managing Director, Hutchison Essar at a press conference in Kolkata today.

At the launch, Asim Ghosh said, "After demonstrating service leadership in Kolkata, we are extending it to West Bengal and Sikkim. Customers in West Bengal will soon experience the friendliness that has been the hallmark of our brand of service, in the rest of the country. With our customer service, backed by our continuous effort to build a robust and reliable network and innovative value added services, we hope to recreate the Hutch magic. This is one of the fastest rollouts of service networks since the time the license and the spectrum were awarded to us. That is an indication of our commitment to West Bengal."

Hutch is one of the leading international cellular brands in Hutchison Telecom's family of international communications brands that has already established itself across the country. In Kolkata, Hutch leads the market with a subscriber base of nearly 6 lacs.

Commenting on Hutch's statewide presence, Kumar Ramanathan, Chief Executive Officer, Hutchison East said, "We have focussed on seamless connectivity across the state, national highways, railway routes and commercial centres for the customers in West Bengal & Sikkim who travel extensively. Besides, a network that spans 140 towns and cities, we will provide 24-hour customer care through a dedicated customer service helpline. In a major move, we will start with 5 Hutch shops and 30 Hutch teleshops, sprinkled across the face of the state for the convenience of our subscribers" . All Subscribers whether postpaid or prepaid, will get 32K SIM card, which allows for a 200 number phone book. For the first time, Hutch subscribers in this region will be able to get services like stock rates on their Hutch phones, cricket updates, astrology etc. by dialing a single number, 123."

About Hutch

Hutchison Essar has licenses for 13 circles in India - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana, East UP, UP West and Uttaranchal and West Bengal & Sikkim. Hutchison Essar now has a combined subscriber base of about 6.5 million cellular subscribers. Hutch was rated the Best Mobile Service in the country by the national TNS survey of mobile users as well as Creative and Most Effective Advertiser of the year, amongst other awards by the Advertising Club.

For more information, please contact:

Enakshi Kapur/Ipshita Mukerjee
Genesis Public Relations
Hutch: 098306 04124 / 09830038142
Tele: 033 - 222 67521 / 224 63454
Email: ekapur@geesispr.com/imukerjee@genesispr.com