Reliance Jio is reportedly gearing up to launch a 4G VoLTE-capable feature phone that will cost just Rs. 500[1]. Rumours of such a device have been circulating for a while[2] now, and according to a financial analyst's research note, it might be unveiled at Reliance Industries Ltd's annual shareholder meeting which is set to take place on July 21. However, the Jio feature phone might not go on sale till August 15. In addition to that, the company might also launch a new tariff plan targeting feature-phone users priced below Rs. 100. Reliance Jio could be hoping to convert a large number of 2G feature phone users.
The low price point will require Reliance Jio[3] to subsidise more than 50 percent of each unit's cost. The company might have already ordered up to 20 million of these phones from Chinese suppliers, according to the research report. There could be multiple variants of the Jio feature phone, and according to previous rumours[4] there could be different versions with Qualcomm and Spreadtrum processors. Other likely specifications of the 4G VoLTE phone include a 2.4-inch screen, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a 2-megapixel rear camera and VGA front camera, Wi-Fi, and GPS. Of course Jio's apps and services will be integrated[5].
On a related note, Reliance Jio has managed to hold on to its lead[6] in terms of 4G download speeds for six consecutive months. Data from TRAI's MySpeed app for the month of June shows that it still leads Vodafone[7], Idea Cellular[8] and Airtel[9], although the average speeds for all four have actually dropped. Reliance Jio's average download speed in...