JioPhone 2 slightly expensive than available feature phone: Airtel MD

JioPhone2 meant to target 2G user base is slightly expensive compared to other options available in the market and it is early to assess the impact on the target market, a senior Bharti Airtel official said on Friday.

Bharti Airtel Managing Director Gopal Vittal during the company’s earning call said that the company is generating operating free cash flow of almost Rs 19,000 crore and it is expected to improve further.

In response to a question on JioPhone2 impact, Vittal said that the previous version of the device did had an impact on 2G market base but it is too early to assess any impact of the new device.

“Today, the feature phone segment accounts for about 18 per cent of our overall revenues. And more importantly, it’s only once in four years that a customer chooses to replace the feature phone. The pricing of this (JioPhone2) device is slightly higher than the cheapest feature phones are just competitive,” Vittal said.

He said that the company will continue to focus on our upgradation from feature phones to smartphones.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has posted a net profit of Rs 1,612 crore for the first quarter ended June 2023, which is nearly flat over earnings in the same period of the previous year.

The revenue for the just-ended quarter was 14 per cent higher at Rs 37,440 crore compared to the year-ago period “backed by strong and consistent performance delivery across the portfolio.

The company reported its Mobile ARPU (a key metric for telecom operators) increased to Rs 200 in the first quarter of FY24 against Rs 183 in April-June FY23.