Rs 1,000 phone from Reliance Jio with unlimited calls, 4G data expected
Reliance’s Jio Lyf phones have been in the smartphone space in India for quite some time. The company has since been actively looking to tap the rural and tier-III markets for its data services and mobile business. According to a report by Economic Times, Jio may soon launch a series of feature phones with 4G VoLTE in a bid to attract millions of users to its telecom venture Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Pricing for these devices could be as low as Rs 1,000 and will come bundled with unlimited voice and video calling, alongside digital content. Jio is the only telecom company which is offering Voice-over-LTE to make calls, has added over 25 million subscribers in the shortest time starting from September 5 to reaching their target of 100 million — equivalent to about 38 per cent of the telecom market leader Bharti Airtel’s 260 million subscribers in the country.
The 4G telco is working with domestic handset maker Lava International and Chinese OEMs to manufacture these feature phones. Jio is said to be subsidising a part of the selling price to make the 4G feature phones at Rs 1,000. The initial batch of feature phone could have branding from Jio and Lava and will be sold through their respective retail channels to reach a larger audience.
There will be two feature phones, according to reports, priced at Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500. Reliance is planning to release these phones in the first quarter of 2017. Although these are feature phones, which mean there is no touchscreen, they will be able to run 4G data and will be capable of accessing internet.
As of now, one of the cheapest 4G phones on sale in India is priced around Rs 3,000. With the launch of feature phones, Reliance Jio will be able to offer the affordability of a feature phone with 4G VoLTE technology along with free voice calls.
According to IDC’s Q3 report on the Indian Smartphone market, “The 4G smartphone shipments grew 24.8 per cent over previous quarter in CY Q3 2016. Rollout of Reliance Jio network has further increased the share of 4G enabled smartphone in India. 7 out of 10 smartphones shipped in Q3 2016 were 4G enabled and 9 out of 10 smartphones sold by ecommerce websites were 4G.”
Reliance Jio is on the fifth position in the Indian smartphone market with a total of 7 per cent, which means an approximate 20 per cent growth over previous quarters. These numbers are supposed to grow in the future, when Reliance Jio commercially launches its 4G services along with other new services.
