With an eye on growing its 3G data-enabled services business, Aircel has tied up with the mobile handset maker Micromax to launch the latter's new 3G smartphone – Canvas Beat.
Announcing the launch here today, K Sankara Narayananon, Strategic Business Unit Head, Aircel Ltd, said the intention is to promote the company’s data-enabled services by making available suitable handsets at a reasonable price point. “The upsurge in 3G data requires smartphones with big screen size and relevant content and applications. Canvas Beat is one such handset, which is developed especially for music lovers,” he said.
Bundled with free headset, free songs and 1GB data, the phone is priced at Rs 9,990 and is made available at all mobile stores.
According to Narayanan, Aircel has a subscriber base of 2.5 crore in Tamil Nadu, of which about 1.5 crore are using data-enabled services, while the rest are yet to upgrade to this service. “We hope this launch would result in conversion of at least 20 per cent of those who do not use data-enabled services to data-enabled services,” he said.
Aircel almost doubled the number of data users in 2012-13, and “have been maintaining the tempo in the current year so far”.