Reliance Jio launches 4G featured JioPhone for Free

Reliance Jio has launched much awaited 4G featured phone known as JioPhone  in India. The phone was launched today by Mukesh Ambani in it’s 40^th Annual General Meeting in Mumbai. Reliance Jio 4G network has changed the industry in the last one year. Now the company plans to make a remark in the feature phone segment with the launch of it’s new 4G featured phone.

According to reports, the JioPhone will be available for free but buyers will have to deposit a fee of INR 1500 which will be refundable after three years on returning the phone. This means that the phone will be available at a price of zero.  Voice and data will come free with monthly plan of INR 153. "At a plan Rs 153 a month, it is only 3% of the existing price putting an end to unaffordable data for all Indians forever," Ambani said. The company will also offer similar features for a weekly plan for INR 54 and a 2 days plan of INR 24.

“There are 78 crore mobile phones in India. However, let us not forget that in this 78 crore, there are more than 50 crore feature phone users who have been left out of the digital revolution. They cannot avail any benefits of a smart phone, much less the benefits of a 4G LTE smartphone. They can neither afford the cheapest 4G LTE smartphone, nor the exorbitant cost of data charged by existing 2G operators. At last year's AGM, I had said that data is the oxygen of digital life, and no Indian should suffer because of data scarcity and unaffordability.

Sadly, a vast majority of mobile users in India are starved of data. This digital disempowerment and unfairness must end. Jio is committing to end it today. We shall achieve this in three ways – Connectivity, Data Affordability and Device Affordability,” said Mukesh Ambani

According to Ambani, currently 50cr people are charged Re. 1.2 -1.5 per min for basic voice calling. They spend around 150-200 only to get 150mins of basic voice. JioPhone voice will always be free. On the other hand, JioPhone, voice will always be free. This will empower every Indian to make free calls anywhere in India.

“The 50 Cr feature phone users don't even have access to basic internet and apps. To enable a Digital Life, they need access to DATA at affordable rates. Starting 15th of August this year, I am declaring DIGITAL FREEDOM for all feature phone users. Jio will give them access to UNLIMITED DATA on the JioPhone. If these feature phone users were to consume a similar quantity of data on other operator's network, they would spend over ` 4,000 – 5,000 per month at prevailing 2G data rates,” he added

JioPhone will be available for beta testing this 15th August and the pre-booking will start from 24th August. The phone will be physically available from September.