In an interesting new development, Xiaomi has decided to expand its reach to the telecom sector with a new Mi Mobile carrier service. The company is now officially an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) and will compete with other Chinese players.
Xiaomi is currently offering two plans under the Mi Mobile service. The first is a pay-as-you-go scheme that will cost users CNY 0.10 (roughly Rs 1) for every voice minute, 1MB of data and SMS. It utilizes China Unicom’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks and can be bought through the brand’s website.
The second Mi Mobile plan asks for CNY 59 (around Rs 610) in order to get 3GB of data per month. This means consumers will be paying CNY 0.02 (approximately Rs 0.30) for every MB of data used under the proposal. The other tariffs remain the same, with CNY 0.10 for each minute of talking, SMS and 1MB of data, applicable once the 3GB limit has been exceeded.
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It make use of China Telecom’s 2G, 3G and 4G services and is set to be available in October through a public beta offering. Both plans will provide customers with a triple-cut SIM card, which a person can easily utilize as a mini, micro or nano-SIM card. Xiaomi is probably hoping its enormous popularity with its consumer base will help it to establish itself among bigger Chinese carriers.
The market is currently dominated by 3 government-owned behemoths. Smaller players have not been a success there as a result, even though the larger operators have been criticized for its poor profitability. Xiaomi will compete with them by functioning as an MVNO, which procures network capacity from larger companies and sells the acquired bandwidth to people under its own name.