Shortly after Airtel announced its Rs 1,399 4G phone in partnership with Karbonn, the Vodafone-Idea Cellular combine is also contemplating a similar device. Reports suggest that the two incumbents may be approaching domestic budget-phone makers like Lava and Karbonn to manufacture a sub-1,500 4G-enabled device. All this, in response to Reliance’s JioPhone that was announced in August, and recorded six million bookings in the first round.

The top four telcos — Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio — are now gunning for the absolute lower-end of the market, which consists of 400-500 million users who are still on feature phones. Many of them could even be on 2G networks. While the ‘effectively free’ JioPhone offers Jio’s content services along with 4G functionalities, the Karbonn A40 Indian which is being significantly subsidized by Airtel under its ‘Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone’ initiative is a smartphone running on Android Nougat. That is a delicious proposition at that low a price point. 

The specifications of the rumored Vodafone-Idea feature phone, however, are not clear yet. Though analysts reckon that it could be a series of low-cost models instead of just one device. And unlike Airtel, which chose to extend its partnership to an already existing device, Vodafone and Idea are working with manufacturers for fresh handsets. ”We’re in discussions with all three telcos but plans have not been finalized,” Gaurav Nigam, product head at Lava, reportedly said. 

Meanwhile, Vodafone India also has a contract with Chinese player itel for feature phones, but right now 4G-enabled sub-1,500 segment seems to be the focus for telcos. Finnish manufacturer Nokia too is closely following the developments in the space. At present, Nokia has four feature phone models in the Indian market, one of which is the revamped version of the iconic 3310. But none of these devices have 4G capabilities. “We are watching how this materializes. If we see a viable business proposition, we will definitely consider it [4G feature phone] and participate,” Ajey Mehta, India VP for HMD Global, recently said.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has tied up with device-makers Lava and Micromax to offer mobile handsets at low cost to its customers with bundled offers, a senior official said today.

“BSNL has tied up with Micromax and Lava to provide instruments to BSNL customers at low cost. We are coming out with bundled offers on the handsets manufactured by Micromax and Lava with BSNL SIMs…the cost details are being worked out,” BSNL’s Hyderabad Telecom District (HTD) Principal General Manager K Ramchand told reporters here.

He said six rural exchanges are commissioned with Wi-Fi in Hyderabad Telecom District and another 112 rural exchanges will be covered by December end this year. On BSNL’s latest ‘Plan 429′, which was launched recently, that provides unlimited voice and 1GB data per day for 90 days for prepaid mobile services for Rs 429, he said since its launch there have been more than 3.5 lakh connections under Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Circles.

On linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers, the BSNL official said a total 68,000 have already been linked in HTD.