Mobile handsets maker Micromax has tied up with telecom services provider Aircel to offer cheaper voice and Internet services to customers.
Under the deal, buyers of Micromax smartphone and tablet computers will be able to get Aircel voice and Internet services at competitive rates.
Micromax devices bought at its outlets will be accompanied by an Aircel SIM card that will offer local calls at one paisa for two seconds, STD calls at one paisa/second, 2GB of data every month for three months, and TV-on-mobile application Popcorn TV. The offers have a validity of three months.
Sankara Narayanan K., who heads Aircel’s Chennai operations, said the business of voice had taken a backseat. With the number of data customers — users who have 2G or 3G connections — increasing four times year-on-year, Aircel is betting big on the Internet segment. Aircel opted for Micromax because of the latter’s affordable range of large-screen smartphones, or phablets.
“It needs at least 5 inches of screen to watch video content, which is a critical business segment for us,” Sankara Narayanan told media persons.
Our Hyderabad bureau adds:
Citing a recent study, Hamir Bakshi, who heads Aircel’s operations in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa, told newspersons that mobile Internet users and smartphone penetration were set to grow four to five times by 2020.
The present affordability of devices would give rise to data proliferation. “Going forward, this is going to be the main revenue generator for both telecom operators as well as handset manufacturers,” he added.