Domestic handset maker Micromax in partnership with Vodafone on Monday launched ‘Bharat 2 Ultra’ budget smartphone at effective price of Rs. 999.

Under this partnership, the existing and new Vodafone customers will have to buy Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra smartphone priced at Rs. 2,899, and will have to simply do a recharge of at least Rs. 150 per  month for 36 months.

At the end of 18 months, buyers of Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra smartphone will receive a cashback of Rs. 900. Additionally, they will also get a cashback of Rs. 1,000 in their Vodafone M-Pesa wallets, which makes a total of Rs. 1,900.

So essentially users pay Rs. 2,899 upfront and get a cashback of Rs. 1,900, which comes to Rs. 2,899 – Rs. 1,999 = Rs. 999.

Commenting on the launch, Rahul Sharma, Co-Founder, Micromax said, “The Bharat-Series, has been aimed for acquisition of the first generation smartphone users. This partnership with Vodafone will help bring in the next phase of smartphone adoption by hand-holding consumers to upgrade them from feature phones to smartphones. We believe that greater device affordability and low cost data packs will drive increased smartphone adoption, as there is still a huge gap. At Micromax we want to give superior device experience in an affordable way and Bharat range is a testimony of the same, having already sold more than 2 million handsets.”

Speaking about this offer, Avneesh Khosla, Associate Director – Consumer Business, Vodafone India said, “We are delighted to partner with Micromax to democratize the 4G smart phones at a never before price of under Rs. 999/-This will help fulfill the aspirations of several million phone users across the country who desire a smart phone but couldn’t afford one. It will also encourage current non users of 4G to upgrade and enjoy a richer user experience with Vodafone SuperNet 4G.”

As for specifications, Micromax Vodafone Bharat 2 Ultra 4G smartphone features a 4-inch WVGA touchscreen. The handset is powered by Spreadtrum SC9832 1.3Ghz quad-core processor coupled with 512MB RAM and 4GB of internal storage.

For cameras, the Bharat 2 Ultra gets a 2MP rear camera and 0.3MP front-facing camera. The handset runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system (OS) and is backed by a 1300mAh battery.

The dual-SIM 4G Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra smartphone will be available across retail stores and Vodafone stores from first week of November.