Following the JioPhoneNext launch announcement, Bharti Airtel also discloses plans to introduce a co-branded smartphone. This phone comes with attractive bundled offers as well.

Known Facts

• Bharti Airtel decides to launch a co-branded smartphone.
• The company is poised to fight against the increasing popularity of Reliance Jio and retain its own subscriber base.
• Reliance Jio may very likely allow heavy subsidies on the handset with Airtel in the game.

India’s second-largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel makes a spectacular announcement regarding the launch of a smartphone. The telecom giant is initiating its comeback as a nationwide force by this move. Serious discussions are taking place between Airtel officials and various smartphone manufacturers regarding co-branding smartphone deals and also bundled internet offers to keep their 2G subscriber base intact.

Even with their rival, Reliance Jio coming up with affordable handsets, Airtel disagrees with slashing the price of the handset. We assume there will be great offers on the packs which maintaining an industry standard of pricing for the handset device.

Airtel’s device offering is ready but the question is subsidy and if they would be able to match Jio’s offering. Airtel has sorted out specifications but it will be difficult to match the pricing with a subsidy for them… but it will come up with an offering, a reliable source revealed.

A proposal from handset manufacturers has already been floated and we hear that some of the handset manufacturers in consideration are Karbonn, Lava and HMD Global.

Airtel Chief Executive Gopal Vittal revealed that handset subsidy was not an optimum way out to increase the popularity of the new product. He added that …it is a competitive industry, we will look at what happens in the marketplace through a combination of good marketing optics and capability and platforms around locks.

There is reason to believe that this announcement on the new smartphone launch comes from the concept of retaining Airtel’s 2G subscriber base from the attractive options by JioPhoneNext. The popularity of JioPhone Next is very likely to hamper the customer base of Bharti Airtel.

The telcos are moving in the right direction by taking proactive steps in customer engagement tactics. Also, the move is aimed at a juncture where Vodafone Idea customers are probably rethinking their decisions and looking for other service providers to depend upon. We think the announcement of the launch of the new smartphone will be an influencing factor for Vi 2G subscribers. The details of the launch and specifications of the smartphone, we presume, will be officially released after Diwali, when JioPhoneNext would have been launched.