Simply subsidising the device cost and offering a 5G connection may not be enough or easy. Carriers are thus exploring bundling in unlimited data, OTT services, and gaming, among others, to lure users, especially the higher paying ones
As 5G rollout draws near, telcos and smartphone companies, for affordable ownership of 5G phones, and connections, are looking to collaborate and provide options, industry executives and handset makers said.
They added that simply subsidising the device cost and offering a 5G connection may not be enough or easy. Carriers are thus exploring bundling in unlimited data, OTT services, and gaming, among others, to lure users, especially the higher paying ones.
Realme is working with Bharti Airtel for its C-series models, said Madhav Sheth, the chief executive of the company.
“We are already working with telcos closely for testing 5G services, along with exploring bundling offers for consumers. We have already started doing that with Airtel for our C-series smartphones,” Sheth said. “These are data add-ons, cashback, etc. Any Airtel user gets ₹750 off when buying the Realme C30.”
The company will try to apply the same strategy with multiple devices, Sheth added.
Other smartphone brands are yet to announce such partnerships or offers but the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Samsung have said previously that they are working with telcos on various consumer use cases.
Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea besides handset brands Realme and Oppo didn’t respond to queries. Samsung, Xiaomi and Vivo declined to comment.
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