India’s Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani today announced a new phone dubbed JioPhone that users can get virtually for free.
The feature phone will be available for pre-booking from August 24 for Rs 0. But there is a catch, users will have to pay a security deposit of Rs 1,500 which will be fully refunded after three years.
JioPhone will be available for booking through MyJio app and at retail stores across the country. The company is planning to make 5 million JioPhones available each week. The announcement was made at the Reliance Industries Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2017.
As for the features, JioPhone which has been dubbed ‘India ka smartphone’, will be a 4G VoLTE enabled model with expandable SD card slot, 4-way navigation and more. You will find a alphanumeric keypad, headphone jack, microphone, speaker and FM radio.
JioPhone will support 22 Indian languages, including voice commands in Hindi. The device has 2.4-inch QVGA display, and can play the JioCinema app for those who want to catch movies. Furthermore, it has a distress button and even supports NFC for quick payments.
Reliance said it will provide free voice calls, unlimited data and Jio apps for Rs 153 ($2.3) per month to JioPhone customers. There is a weekly plan as well as two-day plan offering the same benefits.
For those who pre-book the device in August, the phone will start shipping the very next month. Through the launch, Reliance is vying to woo a good number of the 650 million feature phone users in India. Feature phones still rule the country’s mobile market with over 50% share.
The company’s Jio, a new entrant to the booming telecom market, already has become a name to be reckoned with, thanks to the free 4G data offers to users at multiple occasions. The launch of the new JioPhones now indicate the company is seriously vying to penetrate the rural market and attract users of low-end phones.
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