Cell Phone Brands, Retailers Ready to Reopen Stores Where Permitted, Telecom News, ET Telecom

New Delhi: The mobile phone industry, including brands and retail partners, is expected to resume operations after government directive to ease restrictions on the manufacture and sale of handsets across the country, Even as the nationwide lockdown has been extended beyond May 3 for two weeks.

The Cell Phone and Electronics Association of India (ICEA), however, “expressed concern that the emerging consumer demand for mobile phones and mobile devices has not been fulfilled due to the limited operations of the operations of retail and e-commerce in red zones ”.

The group that represents handset brands like Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Lava and contractors like Foxconn and Wistron, added that states must follow and implement MHA guidelines in the same spirit.

Cell phone vendors have also said they are set to reopen stores where permitted, following government guidelines.

“All stand-alone (single) stores, neighborhood (colony) stores, and residential complex stores are allowed to remain open in urban areas, with no distinction between essential and non-essential,” MHA said in a notification. Friday. However, shopping in urban areas, for non-essential goods, is not allowed in malls, markets and market complexes.

“Now that we are clear about which stores are allowed to open, we will resume operations under government guidelines on social distancing with limited staff,” said Arvinder Khurrana, president of the Indian Association of Mobile Phone Retailers (AIMRA ). The body represents 1.5 lakh of independent phone retail stores.

According to expert estimates, an inventory of 5 million phones can be found in the offline channel for smartphones alone.

Meanwhile, another retail organization, the Confederation of All Indian Traders (CAIT), has urged the government to allow non-essential public services to open at night as well. The MHA has banned the movement of people and non-essential activities between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.