Airtel to Introduce Nokia X Android Smartphone in 17 African Countries

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has partnered with Finnish phone maker Nokia to introduce the company's first ever Android-based smartphone Nokia X in 17 countries in Africa.

Airtel, which has operations in 20 countries across Africa and Asia, will start introducing the smartphone in Africa from mid-April this year.

"This is yet another first from Airtel and Nokia. As Africa's largest Internet provider, we are excited that Airtel customers in 17 countries will be amongst the first in the world to enjoy a unique combination of Nokia's stunning design and user experience integrated with a wide range of services. In addition, Nokia X will come with data bundles for our customers to access their favourite social sites and chat applications," said Andre Beyers, Airtel Africa's chief marketing officer, according to NDTV Gadgets.

Bharti Airtel has also agreed to share the network infrastructure of the company to provide internet experience to the rural communities in Africa and Middle East. Airtel will join the six major telecom operators including Etisalat Group, MTN Group, Ooredoo Group, Orange, Vodafone Group and Zain Group to provide internet and mobile broadband access to rural areas.

Recently, Nokia launched its X Android smartphone in India at ₹8,599. Nokia X sports a 4.0-inch WVGA (800x480p) IPS LCD screen with pixel density of 233 ppi (pixels per inch) and is powered by 1GHz Snapdragon S4 dual-core CPU, coupled with 512 MB RAM. It comes with X Software v1.0 OS and packs 4GB inbuilt memory, which is expandable up to 32GB.

On the camera front, Nokia X smartphone houses a 3.0-megapixel main camera without flash and comes loaded with 1500 mAh battery.

Key specifications of Nokia X