“Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd. is offering iPhone contracts for the first time in India as it counts on data users to help revive earnings that shrank about 89 percent in four years,” Bhuma Shrivastava and Kartikay Mehrotra report for Bloomberg News.
“The country’s third-biggest operator by market value aims to extend the plan to include models other than Apple Inc.’s, seeking customers who surf the Internet, download music and videos and help boost revenue from data services, Chief Executive Officer Gurdeep Singh said in a telephone interview,” Shrivastava and Mehrotra report. “The company started giving out the iPhone 5C model last week on a two-year contract for a monthly payment of as little as 2,599 rupees ($42), he said.”
Shrivastava and Mehrotra report, “The wireless carrier is betting on smartphones to help increase income in a country where the average monthly revenue per user is $1.60, compared with about $69 in the U.S. The arrangement also helps Apple — whose $550 iPhone 5C is unaffordable to most Indians — make inroads in the world’s fastest growing smartphone market… ‘The tie-up with Apple will provide positive traction for Reliance Communications,’ said Abhinav Ganeshan, a Mumbai-based analyst with Canara Bank Securities. ‘It has never been easier for India to buy an iPhone and now this U.S. model will really get young spenders to buy into Reliance’s offer.'”
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