ProPakistani

Ufone has introduced a very catchy offer for low end market. Now anyone can get a handset, Ufone connection and free airtime in only Rs. 999…that’s almost Rs. 1000.

This can be considered as a blow from Etisalat controlled Ufone, primarily, to China Mobile. As they were in better position to interact with some Chinese mobile phone manufacture and bring in such a low cost bundle offer for Pakistan’s low end market. I am not sure, but this looks some Chinese made handset, and most likely to be from Huawei, as maybe Etisalat took the advantage of its old connections with Huwaei in getting the lead. It maybe recalled that Etisalat has very close ties with Huawei, who has been rolling out its network in many countries. Ufone also did an expansion project of US 500 million dollars with Huawei

With cellular connections reaching its bread limit in big cities, now the next potential market cellular companies are eying is the far flung and less developed areas of Pakistan. This bundle offer is really going to strike in rural areas, making some good difference for Ufone, which is in close race with Telenor for second position.

On Ufone’s website, link for this bundle offer is dead; however APP reports that anyone can get this bundle offer from Ufone Franchises or service centers.

We don’t know much about handset that ufone is offering, but APP says that it’s a fully featured handset that is going to compete with any entry level mobile phone.

From the snapshot of the phone from Ufone’s Website, I compared it with this Huawei’s GSM handset, they looked similar. If my assumption is good enough then this is Huawei T206. Some sepcs of this phone as below

Huawei T206

• Support GSM 900/1800M
• Support 16 Poly MIDI ring tones
• Support STK function
• Support Keypad lock
• Support real-time alarm clock
• Phonebook up to 300 entries
• SMS storage up to 100 entries
• Support Zi input method
• Loud speaker
• Hands Free
• Vibration mode
• Dust-proof keypad design
• FM (optional)
• Abundant applications :Alarm clock ,Calendar ,Calculator ,Word time ,To do list ,Stop watch
• 3 Hours of Talk time and 150 Hours of Standby time

There are no words from Ufone about the phone model or details, hence don’t consider my opinion as final word.

But if this is Huawei T206, man this handset is going to give some tough time to LG, Motorola and Nokia too… Along with, this will be a turning point, where officially Chinese handsets are floated intro Pakistani market.

Whatever the handset is Ufone is likely to be subsidizing it. Though, it’s not impossible for Chinese manufacturers to prepare a fully functional handset under 20 dollars. It merits mentioning here, that cellular companies pay Rs. 500 as Sim Activation Tax to government for each new cellular connection.