• The tie-up with Indian Postal Service in Kerala will help postpaid customers in the state to pay bills at any of the designated post offices
• This service is available across 1,300 designated post offices
• The service will be extended to more post offices in the coming months

Cochin, October 23, 2007 : Vodafone today announced its tie-up with the Indian Postal Services in Kerala to enable its customers to conveniently pay their bills at all designated post offices in the state. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today by Mr. Balaji Raman, GM - Finance, Vodafone Essar Cellular Limited, Kerala and Mr. Srikanda Das, Assistant Director, Business Development, Chief PMG Office, Trivandrum. Also present on the occasion were Mr. Sankara Narayanan, CEO, Vodafone Essar Cellular Limited, Kerala, Smt. Shoba Koshy, Post Master General, Cochin and Smt. Hilda Abhraham, Post Master General, Calicut.

The tie up with the Indian Postal Service is specially targeted at customers who prefer to make payments in cash. With this facility, any Vodafone postpaid customer can pay their bill at any of the designated post offices anywhere in Kerala. This tie-up is currently applicable to 1,300 designated post offices in the state and this will be extended to more post offices in the coming months.

This convenient payment mechanism through post offices is an addition to the already existing convenient payment options including Vodafone Stores, Vodafone Mini Stores, Self Service Kiosks, cheque drop boxes, and Vodafone Mobile Stores amongst others.

Mr. Sankara Narayanan - Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Essar Cellular Limited, Kerala said, “The tie-up with the Indian Postal Service is a significant move for us to make payment simple and convenient for our customers in Kerala. We have been constantly exploring newer and innovative payment options to make bill payment effortless for our customers.”

About Vodafone Essar Limited

Vodafone Essar in India is a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc and commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai. Vodafone Essar now has operations in 16 circles covering 86% of India’s mobile customer base, with over 35.6 million customers*.

Over the years, Vodafone Essar, under the earlier Hutch brand, has been named the ‘Most Respected Telecom Company’, the ‘Best Mobile Service in the country’ and the ‘Most Creative and Most Effective Advertiser of the Year’.

Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile communications company. It now has operations in 25 countries across 5 continents and 40 partner networks with over 200 million customers worldwide. Vodafone has partnered with the Essar Group as its principal joint venture partner for the Indian market.

The Essar Group is a diversified business corporation with interests spanning the manufacturing and service sectors like Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping & Logistics and Construction. The Group has an asset base of over Rs.400 billion (US$ 10 billion) and employs over 20,000 people.

*Figures from Cellular Operators Association of India, September 30, 2007.

For more information, please contact:

Ritika Nijhawan / Ajit Pai
Genesis Burson-Marsteller
Vodafone: +9198866 23787 / +9198867 28605
email: ritika.nijhawan@bm.com /ajit.pai@bm.com