Airtel counters Reliance Jio with low-cost smartphones

In a multi-pronged approach to counter Jio’s low-cost 4G feature phone, telecom operator Bharti Airtel plans to partner with multiple smartphone makers over the next couple of months.

On Monday, Airtel announced its partnership with Hyderabad-based Celkon, which has a strong presence in the Telugu-speaking states, to offer a smartphone at an effective price of `1,349.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has already announced an Internetenabled feature phone for a refundable deposit of `1,500, and the incumbent operators are now lining up their own bundled offers to counter the offensive.

Vodafone India last week said it has partnered with mobile han-dset firm Micromax to launch a 4G smartphone at an ‘effective price’ of `999.

Taking a slight dig at JioPhone, Bharti Airtel CEO for AP and TS Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan said, “The big screen smartphones will provide a better data experience to users compared to smallscreen phones.”

He added, “This is our second such partnership and some more partnerships are being lined up which will be announced in due time.”

Earlier this month, Airtel had announced a similar partnership with Karbonn Mobiles.

The company, via its partnerships, will provide users an array of low-cost smartphone choices to select from if they upgrade to an Airtel 4G connection.