Tech Telecom

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is looking at attempting Monsoon Hungama yet again in a bid to attract millions of users to its telecom venture Reliance Jio Infocomm. According to reports 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 seeking to win over customers from the rural and tier-3 markets who use phones mainly to make calls. There will be two feature phones, according to reports, priced at Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500, and they could hit the market in the first quarter of 2017.

The phones are expected to have a keypad, front-facing and rear cameras and will run on a lighter version of Android operating system. All Jio’s content applications such as Jio Chat, Live TV and video on demand will be already installed.

About 65% of India’s more than 1 billion mobile phone subscribers still use feature phones. Affordability – the cheapest 4G smartphones cost about Rs 3,000 – and lack of scope for other uses have deterred the faster adoption of smartphones. The company is working with domestic handset maker Lava International and Chinese original equipment makers to manufacture these feature phones.

Reliance Jio is the only telco with a VoLTE network in India. It added over 25 million subscribers in the shortest time starting from September 5, and it is now trying to quickly reach the target of 100 million users.

The initial handsets could have branding from Jio and Lava and will be sold through their respective retail channels to reach a larger audience.