Today was an exciting day for Xiaomi fans. The company has unveiled their new Mi 4c handset, which sports really solid specs and is very affordable at the same time, but that’s not the only thing that Xiaomi announced. The company has also showcased their new Bluetooth speaker, and to make things even more interesting, they’ve launched their very own MVNO services. This might sounds rather odd at first, but we’re talking about a company which really likes to dabble in pretty much everything, so even though this is a bit surprising, it’s Xiaomi after all. That being said, let’s see what exactly did Xiaomi announce in terms of MVNO services, shall we.
This China-based smartphone OEM has announced MVNO services with ‘Mi Mobile’, a service which basically simplifies carrier packages for consumers. Xiaomi’s goal here was to offer ‘simple and transparent pricing structure’, which might even come in handy to consumers because carrier packages can really be overbearing sometimes. Anyhow, consumers which are interested in Mi Mobile can purchase Mi Mobile SIM cards online, and they’ll get a triple-cut SIM card as part of the package, so that you can use it no matter if you need a nano, micro or mini SIM card.
Xiaomi is offering Mi Mobile ‘Pay As You Go’ and ‘3GB Data Bundle for RMB 59 per month (under $10)’ plans. The former supports Chian Unicom’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks, costs RMB 0.10 (under $0.02) per voice minute, SMS and 1MB data, and will be available on Mi.com starting September 23rd. The latter, on the other hand, supports China Telecom 2G, 3G and 4G networks, is equipvalent to RMB 0.02/MB for data, and costs RMB 0.10 per voice minute, SMS or 1MB data exceeding 3GB. This plan will be available in public beta starting this October, for those of you who are interested.
There you have it, after releasing tons of smartphones, smart TVs, a couple of fitness trackers and all kinds of smart gadgets, Xiaomi has decided to take a shot at MVNO as well. It will be interesting to see will this take of for Xiaomi or not, but it’s sure interesting to see Xiaomi dabbling in MVNO, who knows what’s next for China’s number one smartphone manufacturer.