Bharti Airtel to Stop Jio from Grabbing 2G Subscribers by Launching Cheap 4G Phones

Bharti Airtel will soon be partnering with smartphone companies in India so that it can stop Reliance Jio from grabbing 2G users in the country. A recent report highlighted that Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio would soon launch cheap 4G phones running Android operating system.

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This move will help Jio gaining a lot of new users and extend its lead in the subscriber market share. However, Airtel seems to be not sitting idle as the telco is exploring partnerships with local brands and considering multiple options like locked and unlocked devices.

Airtel Exploring Both Locked and Unlocked Smartphone Options

In India, there’s no trend of locked smartphones. In the United States and several other Western markets, telecom operators partner with smartphone brands to launch devices bundled with tariff plans and monthly payment options. Now, Bharti Airtel is also exploring the same option in India. According to various source familiar with the matter, Airtel is currently exploring both locked and unlocked bundling of smartphones with various local Indian brands all though when we reached out to Airtel they did not respond to our queries.

As you might be aware of already, Reliance Jio is an LTE-only telco, whereas Airtel and Vodafone Idea are GSM operators. With the launch of affordable 4G phones in partnership with Google, Jio might take away the 2G and 3G users of Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Airtel is planning to tackle this move by partnering with local brands and providing affordable devices with bundled tariff plans to the subscribers. This will also help the telco convert its existing 2G userbase to 4G.