NEW DELHI: Flipkart , the country’s largest online retailer and marketplace, sold more than $200 million worth of mobile phones during the five-day Big Billion Days sale, with most consumers demanding 4G-backed devices, a top executive said.Mobile phones made up two-thirds of the $300 million worth of products purchased by consumers during the sale, which started on October 13. Flipkart sold 250 mobile phones every minute, of which 190 were 4G phones, during the five days, chief business officer Ankit Nagori said."Today, three of four phones, which we sell on Flipkart are 4G phones," said Nagori. "About 80 per cent of sale of mobile phones that happened during Big Billion Days were actually 4G phones. Overall, 80 per cent of the phones sold would be under Rs 10,000 range."He said Flipkart was the largest marketplace in the country for mobile phones. During last year’s one-day Big Billion Day event, it sold $60 million worth of mobile phones.The company’s overall smartphone sales mirror that of the Indian market, which is expected to overtake the US as the second-fastest growing market, after China, by 2017. According to Counterpoint Technology Market Research, almost 30 per cent of the smartphones sold in India during the April to June quarter were through online channels. Smartphones sold only online contributed to more than 20 per cent of the total. More than half of these exclusively online sales were on Flipkart, it added."Our smartphone numbers have grown in very high triple digits over the last one year but we don’t share exact numbers. But I can say that all the growth is coming from 4G phones," Nagori added. Some of the top-selling 4G handsets during Flipkart’s sale were Lenovo K3 Note, Moto G3, Samsung Galaxy J5 and J7. The company said most of the 4G phone demand came from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.The spurt in sales of 4G phones was on account of their attractive pricing – most were available in the affordable segment of Rs 7,500 to Rs 15,000 and became even cheaper after discounts. Today, 4G phones start at Rs 4,990.Flipkart has sold about 6 million 4G handsets since such affordable devices entered India about 10 months ago, exceeding the number of users of the high-speed data service across networks in the country. On an average, 7-8 million smartphones are sold every month.The high sales may push mobile carriers to widen the availability of 4G services. Bharti Airtel , India’s No. 1 carrier, has launched its 4G service in hundreds of cities, while Aircel has rolled it out in a few. No. 2 Vodafone is set to start the service by the year end and No. 3 carrier Idea Cellular will offer it in 750 cities by June 2016."There’s a very large chunk of customers who are buying 4G phones because they want their phones to be future-ready," Nagori said. "So, even when 4G networks are not rolled out across the country, no one wants to buy an inferior phone."Flipkart also expects users of entry-level or affordable 4G phones to upgrade to premium phones. "A lot of customers will start moving towards higher end phones and Flipkart is enabling that by providing products exchange, seamless buyback...ownership cycles are going down from 12-18 months to 9-12 months in the next one year," he said.