The Sunil Mittal-led telecom operator has reacted to Reliance Jio’s ‘Jio Exclusive’ bundling offers with its ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ program, which now offers Rs 6,000 cash back for customers who purchase a smartphone priced up to Rs 12,000.
In a statement Friday, Airtel said its offer aims to make it easier for more Indians to upgrade to quality smartphones. Under the new programme, more than 150 smartphones are eligible to get the cashback offer.
“We will continue to bring to market a range of interventions as part of this innovative program and enable customers to get on to the digital highway,” Shashwat Sharma, director – marketing & communications at Airtel, said in a statement.
Airtel is trying primarily to protect its nearly 120 million 2G users, who may be vulnerable to Jio’s attempts to attract them to its network with an affordable 4G smartphone. Besides, it is also aiming to attract Vodafone Idea’s 130 million 2G users besides those of JioPhone who are towards the end of their contract period.
“The smartphone cashback programme from Airtel, applicable to monthly recharges of Rs 249 and above, serves two purposes. Migrate the current 2G handset and low end 4G handset users in the market to a better 4G handset and thus increase the ARPU (average revenue per user) in turn,” Ashwinder Sethi, a principal at Analysys Mason, told ET.
