Thursday, 26 September 2013
Mobile handset maker Micromax and telecom operator Aircel, who are both struggling for greater market share in their respective fields , hitched their wagons to each other on Wednesday in a strategic partnership that is aimed at driving data growth and the sale of mobile phones.
Under this pan-India strategic partnership, Aircel and Micromax will leverage each other’s channel & retail networks and sales resources, and together run an integrated device sales activation program. In addition to that, both the companies will initiate reverse-bundling handset offers worth Rs 12,000 per month for every new Aircel customer.
Aircel, under this partnership, would be offering heavily reduced data rates for Micromax customers. New Micromax smartphone owners will get free 2GB data per month for three months. Additionally, they will get Rs 10,000 worth WAP content free over three months. Aircel has also slashed call tariffs for Micromax customers to one paisa per two seconds for local calls and one paisa per second for STD calls.
The offer also goes for Micromax’s 2G feature phones. Micromax’s dongle users will get 500 MB per month, which will be valid for three months.
“We recognize the importance of smartphone devices to drive data usage. The announcement is in line with our data strategy. Our focus is to get into more partnerships with leading smartphone manufacturers to bring bundled products to our customers. Such device tie-ups will strengthen the telecom ecosystem in the country,” Aircel’s CMO Anupam Vasudev.
Speaking on the partnership, Micromax’s co-founder Vikas Jain said that the partnership will help the company to take its products to masses.
Jain told Light Reading India that Micromax will soon be forming similar alliances with some leading Indian telecom service providers. “We have been working with each and every telecom operator in the country. And, soon you would see Aircel-like partnerships with other telcos as well,” he added.
Micromax is expecting an incremental growth of nearly 20-25 percent due to this alliance.
