BPL Mobile, in association with CRY, launches 'Dial- a-Smile', a campaign to light up a child's life


BPL Mobile, in association with CRY, launches 'Dial- a-Smile', a campaign to light up a child's life

To make a difference to an underprivileged child's life, all you have to do is send an SMS to the number 279. This innovative scheme brought to you by India's leading mobile service provider BPL Mobile in association with CRY Child Rights and You, promises to change the lives of many children for the better.

With this service, about 1 million BPL Mobile subscribers in Mumbai, Kerala, Maharashtra and Goa circles will be able to do their own small but important bit for society with just a touch of a button. Each time an SMS is sent to 279, the subscriber contributes Rs 10/- to CRY. At the end of the month, BPL Mobile will pay the collected amount through this service to CRY. The service will be on through the festive season and will end on January 1, 2003. The campaign has already been run in the BPL Mobile Tamil Nadu circle with a very positive response from the subscribers leading to this nationwide initiative to help more children in the country. The initiative is part of BPL Mobile's corporate citizenship program. Just like everything else at BPL Mobile, corporate citizenship is handled in a planned manner using all the resources available in the most effective manner and through this program BPL Mobile works with responsible social organisations to create a better tomorrow for India.

"BPL Mobile has always been a responsible corporate citizen and involved in a number of charitable initiatives in the past. We are very happy to undertake this initiative since it uses our strengths as a service and helps involve our family of subscribers in a philanthropic act of helping provide education to underprivileged children in our country. By extending the support through an activity that we do best providing efficient communications we are ensuring that this service will enable busy but caring individuals and corporates to be involved in the larger world we live in", said Mr F.B. Cardoso, President and CEO, BPL Mobile.

On behalf of CRY, Ms. Pervin Varma, Chief Executive said, CRY is delighted to partner with BPL Mobile for the cause of India's children. This association offers thousands of people an opportunity to do their bit for the cause of underprivileged children. This makes real the words of our late founder Rippan Kapur "If we all do something, then together there is no problem we cannot solve. Because the responsibility for change lies with us all.

NOTE: On sending an SMS to the number 279 (which corresponds to CRY on your mobile phone), the subscriber would be able to contribute Rs 10/- to CRY. The charge for every SMS to 279 would be included in the monthly bill to postpaid subscribers and be deducted from the balance air-time for prepaid subscribers. The money collected will be used for an education related project supported and monitored by CRY.

** About BPL Mobile Communications Ltd **

BPL Mobile is India's No. 1 mobilephone service provider with over 1.2 m subscribers spread across over 192 cities in the circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Goa. It has revolutionised the mobile telephony industry in India, with its state-of-the-art technology including its unique QualNet Network; Intelligent Network (IN) platform, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and General Packet Radio System (GPRS). It has been the first to launch value added services like SMS and now the MMS service in India. Its philosophy of using the very latest technology, give its subscribers products that touch them and make things easier in their day-to-day lives, taking them ever closer to a wirefree world.

For more information on BPL Mobile, please visit www.bplmobile.com or http://www.bplmobile.com/pgs/press.html

** About Child Rights and You ** CRY is Child Rights and You, a registered Indian trust working towards building a people's movement to restore to India's underprivileged children their most basic rights. CRY harnesses the money, time and skills of thousands of individuals and organisations to partner more than 160 child development initiatives across India. CRY is governed by values of respect for human dignity, transparency, accountability, secularism, non-violence and the spirit of innovation.

For more information on CRY and it's activities, please visit the CRY site. Write to Ms. Sulaxmi at sulaxmi.laud@crymail.org to know about this partnership.