India's Leading GSM Mobile Operator, Airtel, Reaches 1 Million Ringback Tone Service Subscribers Within Five Months of Service Launch

India's Leading GSM Mobile Operator, Airtel, Reaches 1 Million Ringback Tone Service Subscribers Within Five Months of Service Launch

Rapid Growth Attributed to Thorough Quality Control, Differentiated Content

Offerings, and Localized System Management

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- WiderThan, a leading global provider of mobile Internet solutions and services, today announced that its global customer, Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL) which offers its mobile services under the brand name of Airtel, has reached 1 million subscribers for ''HelloTunes,'' a ringback tone service provided and operated by WiderThan, just five months after their July 2004 service launch.

Airtel's current mobile customer base is 9.41 million, most of whom use mobile phones for voice service so the fact that the subscriber rate for the value-added ringback tone service has reached the 1 million mark so rapidly, with a penetration rate exceeding 11.1%, shows a strong demand for the technologically innovative service, which has in fact exhibited its fastest growth in India Vis-a-Vis US, Europe and the Philippines.

In order to provide optimal commercial service quality of ringback tones in India, WiderThan placed a priority on the sound quality of the service by reducing noise and latency. As a differentiator, Airtel with support from WiderThan also placed an emphasis on securing a vast selection of content from India's movie industry, Bollywood, and sourced voice clips from many of India's leading celebrities. WiderThan took into consideration India's many dialects, developing the IVR interface to accommodate the ringback tones service in six languages including English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi & Kannad.

Commenting on the development, Mr. Atul Bindal, Group CMO & Director, Airtel Mobile Services said, ''The tremendous success of the ringback tone service in India has changed the way music is bought and sold in India. Going forward, Airtel clearly views much stronger levels of engagement evolving between the two partners -- the Indian mobile and the music industry."

''The extremely rapid uptake of the HelloTunes service in India just reinforces how competitive Korea's mobile businesses can be as we expand into the global marketplace,'' said Mr. Sang Jun Park, CEO of WiderThan. ''Our market-proven technology, expertise, and ability to localize and customize services based on our customers' requirements, give us a clear advantage as we continue to expand our market leadership globally.''

WiderThan has also launched ringback tones services and other industry leading mobile entertainment solutions and services for customers in Korea, Europe and the Americas including SK Telecom of Korea, T-Mobile of USA, Orange of Israel, Globe Telecom of the Philippines, and APBW of Taiwan.

About WiderThan

WiderThan creates and delivers groundbreaking mobile Internet products, solutions and services to mobile operations worldwide. WiderThan is working on the next generation services and solutions designed to take full advantage of the new and revolutionary capabilities offered by 2.5G and 3G mobile phones and networks. The company was founded in 2000 with the mission of creating services and solutions that seamlessly combine wired and mobile networks. The company's business portfolio covers three broad areas: 1) content development and distribution, 2) market-driven mobile application and solution development and 3) service operation & management.

With the recent acquisition of Ztango in October of 2004, WiderThan offers its customers the most comprehensive range of mobile entertainment services and solutions available through a single provider. For more information, visit http://www.widerthan.com/

About Bharti

Bharti Tele-Ventures is one of India's leading private sector provider of Tele-communications services with an aggregate of 10.2 million customers as of end of November '04, consisting of approximately 9.42 million mobile customers. The company today offers mobile services in 19 out of 23 circles in India. All of its telecommunications services are offered under the brand name of ''AirTel''. The company also provides fixed-line services and Internet access over DSL in 5 circles. The company complements its mobile and fixed-line services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides reliable end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers by leveraging its nationwide fibre optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. For more information, visit http://www.bhartiteleventures.com/

Main Contacts:

Wills & Associates
Brad Wills
Tel: +1-301-346-7398
Email: bwills@wills-pr.com

Namhee Park
WiderThan
Tel: +82-2-2014-5278
Email: nhpark@widerthan.com


Source: WiderThan

CONTACT: Namhee Park of WiderThan, +82-2-2014-5278,
nhpark@widerthan.com; or Brad Wills of Brad Wills, +1-301-346-7398, or
bwills@wills-pr.com, for WiderThan

Web Site: http://www.widerthan.com/
http://www.bhartiteleventures.com/


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