As expected, the 4G VoLTE feature from Reliance Jio was finally announced at the Reliance AGM in Mumbai on Friday. Much to everyone’s surprise, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries confirmed that buying this phone will effectively be free of cost.
The phone will be available for pre-booking from 24 August, bundled with a slew of data plans. Here’s everything you need to know about the JioPhone and its supporting plans.
Reliance JioPhone
- Supports 4G VoLTE for voice calls and data
- Offers digital payment via NFC
- Will be available for free, after Rs 1,500 security deposit is paid
- The deposit will be refunded by Jio after 36 months or 3 years.
What is JioPhone?
This feature phone, as claimed by Ambani, has been made in India, by Indians, and for Indian consumers. Akash Ambani and Isha Ambani, both directors at Reliance Jio, showcased the capability of the phone, which is nothing like we’ve seen on a device at this price.
We don’t have the technical specifications of the JioPhone, but it is likely that the phone is either powered by Qualcomm’s 205 processor, or the one from Spreadtrum. The phone offers 2.4-inch display that Jio feels is good enough to watch movies on, especially with its high-powered speaker.
The phone is supposedly running on a tweaked version of Mozilla’s Firefox OS, and by the looks of it, should support apps like Facebook. The fact that JioPhone offers 4G VoLTE (only network supported), one cannot discount the possibility of WhatsApp coming to the device in the coming months.
We spoke to few retailers in the market and this is what they had to say about the new Jio phone.
What is the Price, Where to Buy?
As we’ve mentioned above, buying a JioPhone will effectively cost you nothing. How so? To get the JioPhone, you will have to wait till 24 August, after which you can pre-book the phone, which will be available from September onwards.
In all probability, you’d have to go to a Reliance Digital store, or apply for the phone online via Jio.com or MyJio app.
JioPhone: A Smart Feature Phone
So, as you can see, the JioPhone is more than just a feature phone. It’s a smart feature phone, that offers 4G VoLTE connectivity.
That’s not all, once the phone is available, you’ll also be able to make digital payments via NFC with this device, which has been mostly available to consumers with mid-range devices at best.
The phone will be available across multiple channels (online and offline) from September onwards, which is when you’d be able to say if the JioPhone is truly disruptive or not.
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