Aggressive tariffs, Rs 500 4G feature phone
Aggressive tariffs, Rs 500 4G feature phone: Jio's new disruption strategy . The feature phone is speculated to cost Rs 500 after the company subsidies
Company News Reliance Jio Infocomm is likely to unveil new tariff plans as well as a Rs 500 feature phone with VoLTE capabilities at the Reliance Industries’ annual general meeting on July 21 as its 84-day Dhan Dhana Dhan offer — announced on April 11 — is ending soon. Under ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan offer’, the company offered a 3month long subscription for 4G data, Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE), SMS and a suite of Reliance Jio app on monthly recharge of Rs 309 and above. "Jio is likely to price its 4G feature phone “at a paltry Rs 500 (sub-$8) to lure 2G subscribers to directly switch to 4G”, which implies “Jio subsidising each handset by as much as $10-15 (Rs 650-975)”, Rajiv Sharma, HSBC director and telecoms analyst, said in a note, reported the Economic Times. Jio is likely to disrupt the telecom market once again with a combination of an aggressive tariff offer backed with the mass-market 4G VoLTE feature phone as its rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are still running trials on VoLTE but haven’t launched commercially. The ET report further said that Jio appears to be ready to flood the market with its 4G devices, having placed orders for 18-20 million of the 4G VoLTE feature phones with some key Chinese original device manufacturers (ODMs). READ MORE