Devesh
Core Member
The launch of Intex’s 4G VoLTE feature phone at under Rs2,000, likely to be followed by a slew of similar devices hitting the market, could open up avenues for incumbent telcos to take on Reliance Jio in the battle for 2G users by forming voice and data bundling partnerships, say experts.
Intex’s new featurephone, priced at Rs 1999 and hitting the market around Diwali this year, compares with the Reliance Industries’ 4G featurephone – JioPhone - which will be available at one-time refundable price of Rs 1500 in September. Micromax has also said that it will launch its own 4G VoLTE featurephone - Bharat 1 - at Rs 1999. While JioPhone is locked to the Jio service, the other two are open phones which can be used with any service provider. Incumbent telcos are believed to be in talks for bundling offers with both. Chipmaker Spreadtrum Communications has also said it is talking with handset makers to bring in 4G featurephones costing around Rs1,500.
Incumbents are expected to face immense challenges in retaining their high ARPU (average revenue per user) feature phone user base and acquiring new customers as well, considering JioPhone launch,” IDC India's senior analyst Navkendar Singh said.
Any partnership with vendors like Intex for its 4G featurephone will give a good opportunity to telcos like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to offer its users “a value proposition as part of efforts to retain their 2G users, especially those at the higher feature phone ARPU bands,” Singh said.
JioPhone: Airtel, Vodafone in talks with vendors for VoLTE feature phone bundling deals to take on JioPhone, Telecom News, ET Telecom
Intex’s new featurephone, priced at Rs 1999 and hitting the market around Diwali this year, compares with the Reliance Industries’ 4G featurephone – JioPhone - which will be available at one-time refundable price of Rs 1500 in September. Micromax has also said that it will launch its own 4G VoLTE featurephone - Bharat 1 - at Rs 1999. While JioPhone is locked to the Jio service, the other two are open phones which can be used with any service provider. Incumbent telcos are believed to be in talks for bundling offers with both. Chipmaker Spreadtrum Communications has also said it is talking with handset makers to bring in 4G featurephones costing around Rs1,500.
Incumbents are expected to face immense challenges in retaining their high ARPU (average revenue per user) feature phone user base and acquiring new customers as well, considering JioPhone launch,” IDC India's senior analyst Navkendar Singh said.
Any partnership with vendors like Intex for its 4G featurephone will give a good opportunity to telcos like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to offer its users “a value proposition as part of efforts to retain their 2G users, especially those at the higher feature phone ARPU bands,” Singh said.
JioPhone: Airtel, Vodafone in talks with vendors for VoLTE feature phone bundling deals to take on JioPhone, Telecom News, ET Telecom