Jio Phone beta testing for select users finally started on August 15[1], and the phone is scheduled to go on pre-order on August 24, but certain offline retailers started taking bookings[2] for the handset earlier this week. According to one such retailer, you will need to submit a copy of your Aadhaar card to make the Jio Phone[3] booking, and delivery for the initial batch would be between September 1 and September 4. The Rs. 1,500 security deposit will have to be paid at the time of delivery, not at the time of booking the Jio Phone, the retailer clarified. The online bookings for the handset still start on August 24.
In other Reliance Jio news, the company added 6 million new users[4] to its network in the month of June, way ahead of Airtel (2 million new subscribers) and Vodafone (less than a million). These numbers come from TRAI data, and say that Jio's[5] market share is now 10.39 percent, behind Airtel's 23.65 percent, Vodafone's 17.86 percent, and Idea's 16.54 percent. Seeing the steadily increasing number of Jio users, the likes of Paytm, Amazon Pay, PhonePe, and MobiKwik are offering cashbacks of up to Rs. 159[6] on recharges of Rs. 309 and above.
Of course, rivals are working on new products to stop the Jio juggernaut, with BSNL[7] - which launched its own mobile wallet[8] in partnership with MobiKwik this week - is now offering more talk time on prepaid packs[9], along with bundled data of varying cap, depending on the recharge value. Vodafone[10] has also launched a new prepaid pack in Rajasthan circle[11] at...