Airtel takes on Jio Phone with Karbonn Rs 1,399 phone

Leading Indian telecom operator Airtel has entered into partnership with domestic smartphone maker Karbonn. As part of the association, the company is introducing an affordable 4G smartphone in the market.

Under the partnership, the company has introduced Karbonn A40 Indian smartphone with an effective price of Rs 1,399. It is a touchscreen smartphone and comes with dual SIM functionality. The smartphone come bundled with a monthly pack of Rs 169 from Airtel which offers data and calling benefits.

The company said that customers have to pay Rs 2,899 for the 4G smartphone and make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169. The customers will get a cash refund of Rs 500 after 18 months and other Rs 1000 after 36 months, taking the total cash benefit to Rs 1500.
In case the customer does not wish to opt for the Rs 169 bundled plan, she/he has the flexibility of doing recharges of any denomination and validity as per individual requirements. However, to claim the cash refund benefit, recharges worth Rs 3000 must be done within the first 18 months (to claim the first refund installment of Rs 500) and other Rs 3000 over the next 18 months (to claim the second refund installment of Rs 1000).

The Karbonn A40 Indian comes with a 4-inch touchscreen display and runs Android 7.0 Nougat and has access to all the apps on the Google Play Store.

Talking about the partnership, Raj Pudipeddi, director – consumer business & CMO, Bharti Airtel said, “As the market leader and pioneer of 4G services in India, Airtel’s aspiration is to digitally empower every Indian with high speed data access. We are delighted to partner with Karbonn to remove barriers to smartphone adoption and enable millions of Indians to leapfrog to a full touchscreen smartphone experience. We plan to partner with multiple manufacturers to bring affordable smartphone options to the market and build an ‘open ecosystem’ of low cost devices. This is yet another step in our ongoing journey to deeply understand customers and bring innovation that delights them.”
The partnership between Airtel and Karbonn is part of Airtel’s ‘Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone’ initiative, which is aimed at enabling every Indian to buy a 4G smartphone and get on to the digital superhighway. Under the ‘Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone’ initiative, Airtel will partner with multiple mobile handset manufacturers to create an ‘open ecosystem’ of affordable 4G smartphones and bring them to market for virtually the price of a feature phone.