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

SEOUL, South Korea, December 15/PRNewswire/ --

- Rapid Growth Attributed to Thorough Quality Control, Differentiated
Content Offerings, and Localized System Management



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-à-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

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


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Profile: intent