Vodafone has tied up with Indian phone maker Micromax to launch a 4G smartphone with Vodafone 4G connection for Rs 999.
This will be the lowest priced 4G smartphone in India.
Earlier, Bharti Airtel announced 4G smartphone in association with Karbonn Mobiles for its Indian wireless users. Reliance Jio was the first Indian telecom operator to announce a cost effective 4G feature phone for masses in rural India. India government owned BSNL has also tied up with Micromax, a leading Indian smartphone brand, to bring 4G smartphones for its subscribers.
Vodafone aims to bring its 4G reach to rural and urban users with the new bundle offer that can rival both Reliance Jio and Airtel.
The Bharat2 Ultra smartphone aims to bring better camera, battery and display options for the new smartphone users in the most affordable category.
How it works
The existing and new Vodafone customers can buy Micromax Bharat-2 Ultra smartphone — priced at Rs 2,899 and will have to do a recharge of Rs 150 per month for 36 months. Users can do recharge for any denomination totaling to a minimum of Rs 150 per month.
Users will receive cash back of Rs 900 after 18 months and Rs 1,000 after another 18 months — in their Vodafone M-Pesa wallets.
“The Bharat-Series, has been aimed for acquisition of the first generation smartphone users. This partnership with Vodafone will help bring in the next phase of smartphone adoption by hand-holding consumers to upgrade them from feature phones to smartphones,” said Rahul Sharma, co-founder of Micromax.
Avneesh Khosla, associate director – Consumer Business, Vodafone India, said the partnership with Micromax will democratize the 4G smart phones at a never before price of under Rs 999. It will also encourage current non users of 4G to upgrade to Vodafone SuperNet 4G.
Bharat-2 Ultra is powered by Spreadtrum SC9832 1.3Ghz Quad Core processor with 512MB RAM + 4GB ROM. The phone has 4” WVGA display and has 2MP rear camera with 0.3MP front camera. The handset runs on Android Marshmallow with 1300 mAh battery and supports full video viewing, social networking and chat apps.
