MTS brings India’s cheapest Android phone at Rs. 2999 ($60)

Can these things go any lower? Hard to tell because, in less than a year, Android handsets have gone from Rs. 30000 to the new low of Rs. 2999. MTS, the CDMA operator, has launched the cheapest ever Android handset – MTS Live Wire – at the price of Rs. 2999 (there’s a catch, see below).

MTS Live Wire will be locked to MTS only and is CDMA based. MTS also has MTS MTAG 3.1 which costs Rs. 3499.

MTS Live Wire

MTS Live Wire is a CDMA Phone powered by Android 2.2 Froyo and comes with high speed CDMA EVDO with speeds up to 3.2 MBPs. Live Wire is manufactured by ZTE. Other specifications of the Live Wire are not known.

Price with bundled offer : Rs. 2999

MTS MTAG 3.1

MTS MTAG 3.1 is made by Huawei and sports a 2.8 inch capacitive touch screen with a 240×320 resolution. MTAG also has a 3.2 mega pixel camera. The phone is loaded with MTS TV app for Live TV.

Price with bundled offer : Rs. 3499

What’s the catch?

There’s always a catch. If not there’s no way MTS can offer these phones at such a low price. The cost is applicable with post paid customers who have to go on a 12 month contract. Pre-paid users can buy MTS Live Wire for Rs. 4999 and MTS MTAG 3.1 for Rs. 5499. Still not bad a price at all.

For postpaid users, MTS offers 250 MB data free, 250 minutes calls and 250 SMS’s free for 12 months. The monthly rental is, yes you guessed it, Rs. 250. That’s Rs. 3000 rupees for 12 months, which when combined with the cost of the phone, would come down to Rs. 5999. The numbers can be extrapolated to MTS MTAG as well which would cost Rs. 6499 with the data plan.

It depends on your data usage and call usage but this is a hot deal with or without the data plan.

MTS already has floated the idea of an almost free phone with MTS Pulse. The success of that phone isn’t known but something tells me that MTS Live Wire and MTS MTAG would meet with success.

Via TheMobileIndian