To counter Reliance Jio’s bid to capture the 4G services market with low cost bundled handsets, telecom major Bharti Airtel is planning to launch Airtel branded smart phones for RS 4,000 by October-November 2015. Airtel, world’s third largest mobile operator is in advanced stages to finalize vendors to launch dual mode 4G handset in the price range of RS 4,000 to 12,000.
The company is in discussions with Chinese vendors and even held talks with Taiwan-based Foxconn, which has set up its mobile manufacturing plant in our country. However, no immediate comments were received from Airtel and Foxconn yet.
On the other side, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani in the company’s annual general meeting said that with the effort of Reliance Jio infocomm, the country will get to see 4G mobile phones for less than RS 4000. Although, Reliance has already launched mobile phone for RS 5,000 in the year of 2003, which led to immediate jump in its subscriber base.
While, Airtel has started launching 4G services across the country in a phased manner and 4G trials have also been launched for existing Airtel customers in Delhi, Hyderabad, Vizag, Madurai, Chennai, Coimbatore and mumbai.