To Deal Rival Jio Airtel To Launch Subsidized Smartphone

To deal with its rivals, especially Reliance's Jio, telco giant Airtel has prepared a full plan and one of them is to launch subsidized smartphone. According to media reports, Airtel already held talks with various Indian handset brands like Lava and Karbonn and contract manufactures to launch smartphones.

Besides, Airtel is also buying new spectrum for capacity expansion including sub-GHz airwaves in the March auction. Sub-Gigahertz (or Sub-GHz) Communication is a type of wireless technology which has a frequency band under 1 Ghz and allows the meter to transmit data to distant hubs without using a lot of power.

India’s first spectrum auction in over four years will kick off from March 1, setting the stage for Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) to bid for airwaves worth Rs 3.92 lakh crore at base price. 

Bharti Airtel logged net profit of Rs 854 crore for the December quarter against Rs 1,035 crore loss a year ago, as the telco witnessed improved realisations and the strong customer additions. Airtel also posted its highest-ever consolidated quarterly revenue of Rs 26,518 crore in the third quarter of 2020-21, up 24.2 per cent over the year-ago period.