Aircel, Micromax tie up to drive data growth

Both the firms will introduce reverse-bundling handset offers worth Rs 12,000 a month for every new Aircel customer

Telecom operator Aircel and mobile handsets manufacturer Micromax on Wednesday entered into a pan-India tie up, under which both will leverage each other's channel and retail networks, sales resources and together run an integrated device sales activation programme.

Besides, both the companies will introduce reverse-bundling handset offers worth Rs 12,000 per month for every new Aircel customer. “The Aircel-Micromax alliance is aimed at promoting data and VAS  along with voice benefits. It will deliver services through the 120,000-strong retail network of Micromax and over half-a-million retail network that we have,” Hamir Bakshi, region business head (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa), Aircel, said.

Stating that Aircel, which holds licences for 4G LTE (long-term evolution) services across eight circles including in J&K, AP, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, was already conducting trials, Bakshi said the evolution of LTE, however, would happen only when the ecosystem or the device space expanded.