Airtel, Reliance to sell iPhones 5C, 5S from November 1

Leading telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications will start selling Apple's iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C smartphones from November 1.

Airtel has started pre-bookings for the latest iPhones, which saw record sales in the first three days of launch in the US market.

"Interested customers can visit select Airtel Retail Store for pre-registration," Airtel said in a statement on Monday.

RCom will offer the iPhones "to customers beginning on November 1, 2013", it said in a statement.

The iPhone 5C will be available at price starting from Rs 41,900 and iPhone 5S at Rs 53,500, Reliance added.

An unlocked and contract-free 16GB version of the iPhone 5C is available for $549 (about Rs 34,700) in the US, while an unlocked and contract-free iPhone 5S can be bought for $649 (about Rs 41,000).

iPhone 5C will be a choice for consumers evaluating Apple's 16 GB model of iPhone 5, while iPhone 5S can be an alternate option to 64 GB model of iPhone 5.

The 16 GB variant of iPhone 5 is available in the country for around Rs 45,000 and 64 GB variant of the smartphone is available for around Rs 59,000.

Apple last week announced that iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C would be available in more than a dozen countries on November 1, including India, without revealing their prices. (Read full story)

Apple has timed the release of latest iPhones in India before Diwali, which is on November 3. Apple products have previously hit the Indian markets in the last fortnight of November or the first fortnight of December.