Micromax, Vodafone offer 4G Smartphone at Rs 999

Mobile operator Vodafone India and handset maker Micromax are offering a 4G smartphone - 'Bharat2 Ultra' – for an effective price of Rs 999. The smartphone will be available from November 2017 onwards.

Under this partnership, users have to buy the smartphone priced at Rs2,899 and have to recharge with least Rs150 per month for 36 months. The recharges can be of any denomination totaling to a minimum of Rs150  per month.

At the end of 18 months, users will receive a cash back of Rs900 and after another 18 months, a cash back of Rs1,000 respectively, in their Vodafone M-Pesa wallets.

''This partnership with Vodafone will help bring in the next phase of smartphone adoption by hand-holding consumers to upgrade them from feature phones to smartphones. We believe that greater device affordability and low cost data packs will drive increased smartphone adoption, as there is still a huge gap,'' said Rahul Sharma, co-founder of Micromax.

Aimed at the budget conscious first generation smartphone users in the country, Bharat Series has already seen an adoption amongst 2 million users.

''This will help fulfill the aspirations of several million phone users across the country who desire a smart phone but couldn't afford one. It will also encourage current non users of 4G to upgrade and enjoy a richer user experience with Vodafone SuperNet 4G,'' said Avneesh Khosla, Associate Director – Consumer Business, Vodafone India.

Bharat-2 Ultra is powered by Spreadtrum SC9832 1.3Ghz Quad Core processor with 512MB RAM and 4GB ROM. The device also comes with different camera modes like scene, frame and burst which at the entry level of smartphones is a feature that users will enjoy.

The handset runs on Android Marshmallow with 1300 mAh battery and supports full video viewing, social networking and chat apps to give a complete smartphone experience to users.