Bharti Airtel launches two new 4G smartphones, partners with Karbonn

India's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel today launched two new 4G smartphones at the price of a feature phone in partnership with Karbonn Mobiles.

The 'A1 Indian' 4G smartphone will be available at an effective price of Rs 1799 (compared to MRP of Rs 4390) and the 'A41 Power' comes at an effective price of Rs 1849 (compared to MRP of Rs 4290).

Both devices have come up with a full touch 4" screen, 1 GB RAM, Dual SIM Slots, Dual Camera along with a host of features. The smartphones run on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat OS and offer full access to all apps on Google Play Store, including YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp. In addition, both smartphones come preloaded with MyAirtel App, Airtel TV, and Wynk Music to offer a great self-serve and content experience to customers.

Raj Pudipeddi, Director - Consumer Business & CMO, Bharti Airtel said: "We are delighted to deepen our partnership with Karbonn to fulfill the smartphone aspirations of India. We saw very strong demand for our first offer under the 'Mera Pehla Smartphone' initiative, which validates the broad appeal of this innovative proposition. We are also delighted to have Amazon on board as a partner in this exciting journey and look forward to working closely with them. We believe these partnerships will help us make a significant contribution towards transforming India into a smartphone nation."

Pradeep Jain, MD, Karbonn Mobiles said, "We are delighted to partner with Airtel. The immense response that we got for us our offer with Airtel helped us add 70% new feature phone users to our existing portfolio. We feel that this partnership will be even more fruitful as it brings more competitively priced 4G smartphones to the market, especially with Amazon India on board.

Airtel said that, for the 'A1 Indian' 4G smartphone, the customer needs to make a down payment of Rs 3299 and for the 'A41 Power' 4G smartphone the down payment is Rs 3349. Customers need to make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169 pack from Airtel. The customer will get a cash refund of Rs 500 after 18 months and another Rs 1000 after 36 months, taking the total cash benefit to Rs 1500 and in case the customer does not wish to opt for the Rs 169 bundled plan, she/he has the flexibility of doing recharges of any denomination and validity as per individual requirements. However, to claim the cash refund benefit, recharges worth Rs 3000 must be done within the first 18 months (to claim the first refund installment of Rs 500) and another Rs 3000 over the next 18 months (to claim the second refund installment of Rs 1000).
The ownership of the smartphone is complete with the customer and there is no need to return the device to Airtel/Karbonn at any point to claim the cash benefit.

Under the 'Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone' initiative, Airtel will partner with multiple mobile handset manufacturers to create an 'open ecosystem' of affordable 4G smartphones and bring them to market for virtually the price of a feature phone.