Airtel has upped the ante for grabbing new customers amid an intense battle with Jio. NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel is pulling out all stops to match Reliance Jio Infocomm in acquiring customers and has launched online sales of smartphones — starting with the Apple iPhone 7 series — also effectively competing with ecommerce giants Flipkart and Amazon . Phones from more brands, packaged with down payments, finance schemes and bundled tariffs will be added, the market leader said in a statement on Monday. The company is likely to introduce mobile phone accessories, allied peripherals and products, people familiar with Airtel’s plans said. “Not only are we making it easier for millions of customers to upgrade to devices they always wanted, we are also making the entire process seamless and simple through digital technologies,” Harmeen Mehta, Global CIO at Bharti Airtel, said in the statement. She said consumers wi...