Tata Communications teams up with other companies to launch pilot for international money transfer service on mobiles
May 7, 2008

Pilot launched by !dea Cellular, Tata Communications, HSBC India and Etisalat UAE

In line with its commitment to continuously offer innovative new services to its customers, IDEA Cellular Limited today announced the launch of a pilot with Tata Communications, Etisalat and HSBC India, for a mobile phone based, secure and convenient money remittance service to its subscribers in India. As part of this service, UAE based Indian immigrants can transfer money to their families based in India.

The service will enable Indian expatriates in UAE to transfer money to their relatives back home through Etisalat’s secure mobile remittance service, with Tata Communications being the central hub for the service.  HSBC India will be the banking channel for the funds transfer and disbursement in India with Mashreq being the banking partner in the UAE. The service will complement existing remittance channels and make transferring money internationally significantly more affordable. This is planned as a targeted service which will be enabled on the India–UAE 'corridor', covering the large Indian NRI community residing in the UAE. In the first phase, this service which is jointly being launched with Tata Communications, Etisalat and HSBC India will be extended to the over 27 lakh subscriber base of IDEA Cellular in Kerala.

Commenting on the new innovation for Idea subscribers, Pradeep Shrivastava, chief marketing officer, IDEA Cellular Limited said: “Studies have revealed that remittances have greatly influenced income, consumption and savings patterns in Kerala. We are certain that the convenience and ease of use of this new remittance service, will be a significant value add for our 27 lakh subscribers in Kerala. Creating broad based financial empowerment to our subscribers, this mobile based service will be truly cost effective and path breaking, helping us further build on our leadership position in the Kerala circle.”

“This service is only the beginning of Tata Communications’ plans to create a global hub for interoperability of all mobile commerce transactions”, said Vinod Kumar, president, Global Data and Mobility Services, Tata Communications. “Our dedication to the mCommerce space reinforces Tata Communications’ commitment to the continued development of new, innovative value added services for mobile network operators.”

“This joint launch with Tata Communications and Idea Cellular is just the start of a comprehensive initiative to widen the scope of Etisalat’s mobile commerce initiatives and we believe the convenience of the service will be a great attraction for the large Indian expatriate population here in the country, through its ease of use and lower transaction costs,“ said Essa Al Haddad, chief marketing officer, Etisalat UAE. “We look forward to working closely with our partners to revolutionise the process of money remittance here in the UAE which will become the first country in the region to offer such a service.”

“India is the leading recipient of worker remittances from various corridors across the world and this continues to grow at a rapid pace. We are leveraging our global presence and technology infrastructure to offer a cost-effective, convenient and reliable mode of money transfers to this increasing migrant population” said Neelesh Heredia, deputy chief executive officer, HSBC India.

“Mashreq has always been a pioneer in the UAE market with state-of-the-art and customer friendly products and services. We were the first bank in the UAE to introduce credit cards, ATMs, traveller’s cheques and many other services,” noted Douglas Beckett, head of Retail Banking in Mashreq. “It gives us great pleasure to work with major institutions like Etisalat, HSBC India, Tata Communications and Idea Cellular to develop this revolutionary new product. We will continue to work aggressively with our partners to ensure the success of this pilot and finalise the product for a full scale public launch.  We can assure our clients that their money will be in safe hands until it has been received by their loved ones back home in India, and later on across the world”.

Forward-looking and cautionary statements
Certain words and statements in this release concerning Tata Communications and its prospects, and other statements, including those relating to Tata Communications' expected financial position, business strategy, the future development of Tata Communications' operations, and the general economy in India, are forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including financial, regulatory and environmental, as well as those relating to industry growth and trend projections, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Tata Communications, or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, among others, failure to increase the volume of traffic on Tata Communications' network; failure to develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; failure to successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services, including voice transmission services; failure to stabilize or reduce the rate of price compression on certain of the company's communications services; failure to integrate strategic acquisitions and changes in government policies or regulations of India and, in particular, changes relating to the administration of Tata Communications' industry; and, in general, the economic, business and credit conditions in India. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, many of which are not in Tata Communications' control, include, but are not limited to, those risk factors discussed in Tata Communications' various filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Tata Communications is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements.