While the telecom sector is still buzzing with Reliance Jio’s Rs 0, upcoming 4G VoLTE phone, seeing that its rivals like Idea and Vodafone couldn’t stay behind. On Friday, Idea Cellular has come up with a ‘solution’ to give a tough competition to its latest rival Reliance Jio.
Idea Cellular has come up with all new exciting offers for users, and has tied up with handset makers and Vodafone to launch cheap smart phone that will give tough competition to its arch rival Reliance Jio.
Himanshu Kapania, the managing director of Idea Cellular Limited, told an analyst, the Aditya Birla Group company, which is being merged with larger rival Vodafone, is working with handset makers to launch a phone that will be slightly expensive, but offer customers the freedom of choice.
Kapania said the company wants the new handset to come in at around Rs 2,500 apiece, but made it clear that Idea will not subsidise the phone. This new handset will give all the choices to a customer, including to choose the operator of his/her choice, popular applications like Google, Facebook or WhatsApp.
“The practical solution that we are working on is to work with the handset industry and work with them to be able to bring down cost of handsets by bringing down the bill of material, so that the gap of the announced price of Jio feature phone versus a smart-phone can be brought down to reasonable levels,” Himanshu Kapania, the Managing Director of Aditya Birla Company was quoted while interacting with the analysts, reported News Nation.
Reliance Jio, earlier, at its share-holders annual general meeting announced 4G VoLTE phone which comes virtually free for a customer by paying a security deposit of Rs 1,500.
(Inputs from PTI)
