The long-rumoured[1] Reliance Jio 4G VoLTE feature phone may be unveiled at a price of Rs. 500 on July 21, the day Reliance Industries Limited is holding its 2017 Annual General Meeting. A research note by HSBC analyst Rajiv Sharma reportedly says the Jio 4G feature phone[2] will be priced as low as Rs. 500 (less than $8) in order to get 2G feature phone users to move to the operator’s 4G network. Reliance Jio[3] is also said to be planning to launch a new aggressively priced tariff plan to lure customers to its network.
Reliance Jio’s Rs. 500 4G feature phone
According to an Economic Times report[4], the HSBC research note says the Jio 4G VoLTE feature phone will be subsidised by as much as $10-15 (roughly Rs. 650-970) in order to achieve the price point of Rs. 500. The company is said to have placed an order of 18-20 million units for the handsets with Chinese vendors such as Zhejiang Techain Electronics Technology Co., Shenzhen CHINO-E Communication Co, Crave and Megaphone. Shipments will start in late July or early August.
While the Reliance Jio 4G feature phone is expected to be announced at the July 21 AGM, it will reportedly hit the market on August 15. The feature phone is expected to be launched under the Lyf brand, which is a part of the Mukesh Ambani[5]-backed Reliance Digital.
New Reliance Jio plan
Along with the 4G feature phone, Reliance Jio is said to be launching a more aggressively priced tariff plan to reach more users. This new Jio plan is said to be priced at Rs. 80-90, but it is not yet known whether the tariff...