Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has joined hands with mobile phone maker Celkon to offer its pre-paid customers 4G smartphone at an effective price of ₹1,349.
The current market price of the Celkon Smart 4G model, which comes with 4-inch touch-screen, dual SIM slots, 1 GB RAM and 8GB ROM, is ₹3,500.
Launched under the ‘MeraPehla Smartphone’ initiative of Airtel, customers need to make a down payment of ₹2,849 towards the device. Further, they need to make 36 continuous monthly recharges of ₹169. After 18 months, the customers will get a cash refund of ₹500 and after 36 months an additional ₹1,000, Airtel said.
Describing it as a stylish and affordable 4G phone, CEO (AP and Telangana) of Bharti Airtel Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan told presspersons in Hyderabad on Monday that the partnership with Celkon is a step towards enabling smartphone dispersion and data adoption in the country.
Customers not interested in the ₹169 bundled plan have flexibility of doing recharges of any denomination and validity as per their requirements. However, recharges worth ₹3,000 must be done within the first 18 months, to claim the first refund installment of ₹500 and another ₹3,000 over the next 18 months for the next instalment of ₹1,000.
Celkon chairman and managing director Y. Guru said the mobile maker was confident of selling by December five lakh devices under the scheme, which is also expected to provide push to its brand in a market where competition is on the rise.
The decision of Airtel to partner with Celkon -- it has a similar tie up with Karbonn phones -- also comes amid growing competition in the wake of the Reliance Jio’s foray.
