India’s wealthiest business mogul Mr. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd , finally launched much anticipated , ultra-affordable JioPhone during the 40th Annual general meeting of his company that was held at Birla Matushri Sabhaghar in Mumbai on 21st July 2017. Telecom industry experts and analysts have highly appreciated this well crafted move and they are expecting the sunrise of a new era of innovation for Indian feature phone industry and raised a big thumbs up to this RIL master stroke to imbibe the entry level Indian subscribers in Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s “DIGITAL INDIA” revolution.
Introducing the JioPhone as “India ka smartphone” , Mukesh Ambani further proclaimed, “JioPhone will make the 2G feature phone obsolete”. National President of Indian Cellular Association , Mr. Pankaj Mahindroo is highly optimistic about the possibilities unveiled with the launch of JioPhone and he expects that it will act as a catalyst for spreading 4G connections (Specially VoLTE) into deeper hinterland in India. After disrupting the 4G and broadband market earlier, JioPhone has now arrived as a storm with an aim to grab a big pie of the feature phone and smart phone market, with a single go. And it’s outcome was most obvious also. Within few minutes after the launch of JioPhone , a sharp fall in share prices of Idea Cellular (down by 7.3%) and Bharti Airtel(down by 4.2%) was recorded which ultimately wipped off about 8.5k crore in Indian market value.
Every common man from all corners of the society is now curious to know that why they should opt for this phone or in other words what are the specialities and limitations of this JioPhone ? Well, just chill. We have avidly compiled here five interesting facts you should know about JioPhone to get resolved all the queries swamping in your mind.
1. Technical Specification :
Let’s take a quick look at the hardware specifications said to be available in Jio Phone.
- Display size – 2.4 inch
- Resolution Type – QVGA ( 240 X 320 Pixels )
- SIM Type – GSM , Dual SIM ( Nano SIM + Standard SIM )
- Operating system – KAI OS of Firefox
- Internal Storage – 4GB
- RAM – 512 MB
- External Storage – Expandable upto 128 GB ( Micro SD card slot given )
- Camera – 2 MP rear camera
- Network type – 4G VoLTE ( Supports 4G LTE Band 40 – 2300MHz )
- Battery capacity – 2000 mAh
- Connectivity options – Bluetooth 4.1 LE , NFC .
- Headphone Jack – 3.5 mm
2. Stunning features :
JioPhone is reported to be loaded with various top notch features mostly found in highend smartphones available at INR 10k to 15k.
⇒ Jio 4G phone is surely intelligent enough in true sense as it comes with an inbuilt voice assistant . It supports 22 Indian languages. It may be operated by voice commands. So, next time, if you want to make a call, just say – “CALL < CONTACT NAME >” and your JioPhone will automatically initiate the desired call.
⇒ Similarly just talk to your JioPhone for receiving or sending SMS , playing music etc. (We know this feature is already there in Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistance and Samsung’s Bixby. But for a Rs. 1500 Phone.. It is a delight!)
⇒ Listen to FM radio channels without connecting a headphone. Even latest costly smartphones don’t offer this unique feature.
⇒ JioPhone is preloaded with various Jio apps at free of cost to let you enjoy live TV , Jio music , Jio movies and lot more.
⇒ JioPhone provides “screen mirroring” facility that allows Jio cinema and Jio tv to be viewed on any traditional tv screen to let you enjoy your favorite tv shows along with your family members.
⇒ JioPhone is equipped with a panic button ( numerical key 5 ) which is a wonderful feature specially for elderly people, which may in times turn out to be a savior in case of emergency. Assign any phone number of your choice ( called emergency number ) to keypad 5 and once this keypad is long pressed , the current location including GPS details of that JioPhone will be sent instantly to the emergency number.
⇒ In near future , JioPhone will facilitate NFC support as well as tap-and-pay transaction through UPI which will enable users to make online payments by linking their bank account , debit or credit card details. These features will be rolled out to JioPhone through OTA software upgradation later this year.
⇒ There are also certain limitations of JioPhone , such as WhatsApp is not supported by the device right now. But with software upgradation, changes will come.
3. “INDIA KA SMARTPHONE” :
JioPhone has been adroitly designed by the Indian technicians. It will be a great deal for those hell bent Indians who are obsessed with Indian products. Intex technologies, an India based leading global company, is manufacturing JioPhone and currently engaged in pitching the software platform for apps and games. JioPhone is no doubt a promising “Made in India” product and Mr. Mukesh Ambani, calling it as INDIA KA SMARTPHONE, announced to offer DIGITAL FREEDOM to all Indians on 15th August,2017 by starting beta testing of JioPhone on this day.
It was an honour for the young directors at Jio to unveil #JioPhone, made by young Indians, for India. #RILAGM2017 pic.twitter.com/WCz6TW17rR
— Reliance Jio (@reliancejio) July 22, 2017
4. Price and Package | Tarrif Plan :
In his AGM speech , Mr. Mukesh Ambani promised to make JioPhone available for all Indian customers at an “effective cost” of Rs. 0. Customers have to pay a refundable security deposit of Rs. 1500 to own a JioPhone and the entire amount will be refunded after 36 months if the phone is returned to Jio in working condition. JioPhones will be delivered to the customers as first come first serve basis from September 2017.
Two pre-paid plans for Rs.153 and Rs.309 are available with JioPhone right now.
1. Plan Rs. 153 :
- Validity : 28 days.
- Local and STD Calls : Unlimited.
- SMS : Unlimited.
- Internet Data : Unlimited (500 MB data cap on daily basis).
2. Plan Rs. 309 :
- Validity : 28 days.
- Local and STD Calls : Unlimited.
- SMS : Unlimited.
- Internet Data : Unlimited.
- Special feature : JioPhone tv pack. It allows customers to watch various tv channels on any traditional tv screen by means of “screen mirroring” facility available exclusively on JioPhone.
There are two more sachet packs are available for those who can’t buy a monthly pack. Rs.54 for a week and Rs.24 for a validity period of couple of days.
5. How to book JioPhone :
Interested customers may pre-book their JioPhones from August 24 this year, via My Jio app or by merely visiting the nearest Jio offline store. JioPhones will be handed over to the customers from September 2017 as on first come first serve basis. Jio has set a target to roll out 5 million JioPhones every week.
To register for your Jio Phone through Jio.com fill this form :
JIOPhone Registration
After submitting the form you will receive an email from Jio.
The email reads, “Greetings from Jio! Thank you for your interest. We have received your details and our team will contact you shortly. Thank You, Team Jio.”
Now wait for further update from Jio. You may subscibe our facebook page to keep an eye on Jio Phone news.
