Hutchison Essar Launches VoiceXpress in Delhi

Hutchison Essar has launched VoiceXpress, which would enable users to send
voice messages to cell phones users in India. But, if the message is sent to
Canada or US then the message could be for both cell and fixed line users.
Developed in collaboration with TeleVoice, promoted by Sabeer Bhatia, the  service would allow users to send voice messages to Orange
subscribers in   Mumbai, Celforce in Gujarat, and Command subscribers in Kolkata. The service
would be available for both pre-paid and post-paid customers. The service  provider has announced a five-day offer allowing its subscribers to send
free voice messages to US, Canada and the three Hutchison affiliated networks in the country. 

Priced at Rs 5.95 for international messages and Rs 2.95 for domestic  messages, the company is pitching of for cheap and
easy service and that  voice message would extend the emotive element into messaging. While the
element of voice would be the main difference between SMS and voice  messages, another significant difference would be that the retrieval too
would be charged here at the same rate as sending the message. The other major value that the company has been pitching for is that
while  SMS enables only English speakers to send messages, voice messaging would be
across languages. "I see the growth of voice messaging outstripping the  growth of SMS messaging," declares Sudershan Banerjee, CEO Hutchison Essar.
SMS is said to have tripled its growth over the past 14 months. 

The other value which Banerjee feels would be instrumental in popularizing
the service is that voice messaging would be more simplistic to use than the SMS, which requires a lot of punching.The opening up of Internet telephone
would in no way hinder the service from taking off. "The idea is to provide choices to the consumer. Let the consumer have a spectrum of choices and
he shall decide the needs according to the demands of the situation," adds
Banerjee. Meanwhile Bhatia is gung-ho about the prospects of the new service. The company, NavinMail has already tied up with Hutchison in
Kolkata, Mumbai and Gujarat.

The company is also in talks with other cellular service providers as well as fixed service providers. Bhatia is
using the Indian experience as a launch pad to expand the business into overseas market particularly the Chinese market. China, which has a
mobile base of 160 million, is a very critical market for Bhatia.