RPG Cellular subscribers in TN get Yahoo! services on mobiles

New Delhi: Yahoo! India, the leading Internet communications and media company, has tied up with RPG Cellular, Tamil Nadu’s leading mobile service operator, to offer state-of-the-art ‘Yahoo! for SMS’ mobile applications to all its subscribers in the region.

Yahoo! India offers Yahoo! Messenger, Group SMS, Mail, Logos, Ring Tones, Cricket, Astrology, Photo SMS, Jokes, Blink and Flash SMS, World Timings and a wide range of services for SMS to mobile users in India. These services from Yahoo! are a huge success with consumers and have become a service of convenience.

The Yahoo! for SMS offerings for the RPG Cellular subscribers will include the widely popular Yahoo! Messenger service. This enables mobile phone users (through SMS) to communicate with any of their friends on their Yahoo! Messenger buddy list. The offering allows users to communicate seamlessly and instantly across the PC and mobile phone devices without having to log in from a computer.

To avail of these services the RPG Cellular user needs to have a Yahoo! ID. To log in, the user needs to type ''IN_Yahoo! ID_Yahoo! password'' on his mobile phone, and send it as an SMS to 8242 (please note that the password is case sensitive) and s/he will then be logged in.

The user immediately gets an SMS with the list of his friends that are online at that time. Almost all the functionality on the PC interface of the Yahoo! Messenger will be available to the RPG Cellular subscriber on his mobile phone too — the user will be able to send and reply messages, add and delete friends, logout, etc.

This service is available to all prepaid and postpaid RPG Cellular users. Says Arun Sikka, vice-president (marketing, sales and customer care), RPG Cellular: “SMS is a rage in Chennai and we are sure that this association with Yahoo! will give our subscribers a wide range of services to use. We are sure our subscribers will find these services extremely interesting.”

Neville Taraporewalla, director (sales and business development), Yahoo! India, adds: “Yahoo! India’s relationship with RPG Cellular will enable them to offer the latest and most popular services that extend the use of the mobile phone over and above voice functionality. At the same time it will give users the facility of personalising their mobile phones. This relationship adds one more partner from the mobile segment, thus making us a leader in the mobile data space.”

Yahoo! India, launched in June 2000, is an Internet guide designed specifically for netizens in India and for users abroad with a special interest in India. It is the 23rd world property in Yahoo!’s comprehensive global network. Yahoo! attracts the largest traffic of netizens in India of over 15 million users. Yahoo! features a directory of websites organised by a team of web-surfers into 14 easy-to-use categories and communication properties.

To further meet the needs of local consumers, Yahoo! India offers comprehensive local and global information in the areas of news, finance, cricket, weather, movies and greetings. Today Yahoo! in India has over 70 employees operating out of Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Yahoo! has an enviable client list comprising all the leading advertisers across a host of industries and has a robust and fast-growing business in wireless services enabling several of its offerings through leading telecom operators.

RPG Cellular is a part of the dynamic, Rs 6,700-crore RPG group, the sixth largest business house in India. RPG Cellular, the pioneer in cellular communications in Chennai with over 1,50,000 subscribers, has been offering the best-value cellular service for the last seven years. With strategically located stations across Chennai, RPG Cellular offers the widest coverage and strongest signals. Providing more value for money with innovative services and tariffs has helped RPG Cellular gain the competitive edge.