Telecom operators in the country are wooing iPhone 5 buyers with freebies and schemes, as they expect the iconic devices to be a revenue churner.
In India, Bharti Airtel and Aircel are the only companies to have announced bundling schemes with the iPhone 5. The industry expects other operators to follow suit.
Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest telecom operator by subscriber base, is offering a range of data plans for iPhone 5 users such as Rs 300, Rs 500, Rs 800 and Rs 1,000.
Under the low-end plan of Rs 300 a month, Airtel is offering half an MB of data downloads, with 500 local minutes and 300 SMS (local plus national) and 200 MB of 3G downloads. Under the top-end plan of Rs 1,000 a month, the New Delhi-based company is offering 3 GB of data, with 1,500 local call minutes and 600 SMS.
“Data consumption is at least 2.5 times more on iPhones than any other smartphones. We have always said that data are the new world and all our products and services would revolve around it,” Bharti Airtel President-Consumer Business (India and South Asia) K. Srinivas said.
“There has been a 200 per cent increase in bookings by women for iPhone 5 and there has been a surge in overseas booking like the US (as gifts for Indians), while the festive sales also played their part,” Srinivas added.
The company had opened pre-launch sales on its Web site three days ago with responses an overwhelming 80 per cent higher, compared with iPhone 4S (previous version).
Aircel is offering benefits of more than Rs 20,000 a year for every iPhone 5 customer. The company is offering its post-paid usage plans that include waiving monthly rentals and benefits of free data plans (1GB data per month) bundled with voice (500 minutes per month) and SMS (500 per month). In other words, Aircel customers get all the above mentioned benefits for free, it said in a statement. After 12 months, the customer has to pay only Rs 399 a month for these services.
“Aircel has always positioned itself as a data-led telecom player and has addressed the multi-functionality of a mobile phone. Our long-standing partnership with Apple only reiterates the fact that introduction of best handset devices in the market automatically leads to best consumer experience therefore resulting in high data usage,” Aircel Head-Marketing Anupam Vasudev said.