Mumbai, December 15, 2000: Hutchison Max Telecom Limited (HMTL), Mumbai's leading cellular service provider has announced a strategic tie-up with Rediff.com India Limited (Nasdaq: REDF) one of India's leading Internet portals focusing on India and the global Indian community, to offer to its customers, the popular e-mail service: Rediffmail, on Orangeworld.
Orange customers, both contract and prepaid, can now read, reply, compose, delete and send e-mails by accessing their Rediffmail account on Orangeworld from their Orange WAP phone.
Interestingly, Orange, for the first time will make it possible for Just Talk customers (pre-paid customers) to access e-mails on their WAP phones.
This is the first time that Hutchison Max Telecom Limited will enable its customers to access Rediffmail, thus unleashing the power of the Internet on their palms through Orangeworld. Rediffmail has 2.1 million users as on September 30, 2000 who will now be able to access their e-mails from their Orange WAP phones. The introduction of this service will give individuals the freedom to access their e-mails anytime, anywhere.
HMTL had earlier launched Orangeworld, a comprehensive mobile portal of internet services, which offers varied and exhaustive content through tie-ups with leading content providers making its appeal universal across the customer base. Orangeworld users can access from over 150 choices of content and services on an extremely varied selection of services comprising news, finance, entertainment, city guides, shopping and travel literally at their fingertips.
Commenting on the tie-up, Mr. Sandip Das, Chief Executive Officer, Hutchison Max Telecom Limited, said "As world wide usage trends indicate, e-mail has been the single biggest factor behind the internet revolution. We feel the pioneering initiative to offer the popular Rediffmail service through Orangeworld too will spur WAP usage among our customers."
"Communication through e-mail is now an integral part of one's daily routine. This alliance will give an opportunity to our users to now access their e-mails anytime, anywhere through an Orange enabled WAP phone" says Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman & CEO, Rediff.com India Limited. "We will continue to provide the latest value services in the wireless world to our common customer base through our longstanding relationship with Hutchison Max Telecom" concluded Ajit Balakrishnan.
Hutchison Max Telecom, with its premium brand Orange, is the leading cellular service provider in Mumbai. Hutchison Max Telecom is part of the telecommunications division of Hutchison Whampoa Group.