Mobile phone users in India, who use the traditional cell phones can get their luck turned. The top-notch operators, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and idea Cellular has joined hand and are working with the handset companies to make 4G smartphones extremely lower on price and offer them unlimited voice calls and data plans for Rs 60-70 per month. The idea is completely from the rival Reliance Jio Phone users, who may aim to counter the latest with Rs 49 plan a month which can help to magnetise a lot of subscribers.
With the low-cost smartphones and unlimited voice calling and data plans will hurt average revenue per user in the near term, the telecom company can expect to retain their user with smartphones to increase data consumption in the medium to long-term. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea cellular refused to have a word for this story. The three mobile service providers are already joining hands with handset companies are offering bundled data and voice calls are offering the amount which will be much cheaper than Reliance Retail’s jiophone, refundable after three years.
The operators are lowering price bars after jio recently cut down the minimum monthly recharge for jiophone users to Rs49 from Rs 153, with unlimited voice and 1 GB of data for 28 days. Basic phone users in India typically subscribe 2G voice services and account for 65-70% of India’s large number of mobile subscribers. They contribute 50% of telecom sector’s revenue, sizable enough for India’s operators to try everything to retain them, analysts said.
Coming out with the new feature mobile and subsidising it will be akin to the new business, which will be tough given the revenue pressures, according to Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, which frames all major telecom companies. Bundling smartphones with data and voice plans is a better option.”They will have to revise pricing, may not go head to head, but could bring in plans for phones starting from Rs 60-70 range,” said Mathews.