The 4G-enabled feature phone will be available at Rs 0 for buyers with life-long free voice calls, cheap data packs of Rs 153 a month and one-time refundable security deposit of Rs 1,500
After huge success in the smartphone segment, Reliance Jio Infocomm ltd, led by country's richest man Mukesh Ambani launched a 4G-enabled feature phone at an effective' zero price on Friday. The new phone offers bundles life-long free voice calls with cheap unlimited data packs of Rs 153 a month for around 50 crore low-income users to his 10-month old Jio.
Addressing the 40th annual meeting of shareholders of RIl in Mumbai, the parent of Jio, Chairman Ambani said, "The proposed handset, named JioPhone, will have an effective price of Rupee 0 as buyers will be able to get the device for a one-time refundable security deposit of Rs 1,500. The deposit will be refunded after 36 months on return of the phone."
"Voice calling will be free for life while unlimited data packs will cost Rs 153 a month on the device," he added.
With this mega launch, energy-cum-telecom giant Reliance Industries seem to bring in digital revolution in the country and in the world. Besides, the company is also focussing aggressively its core refining and petrochemical business as well.
JioPhone will be available for user testing in beta form from August 15 and for pre-booking from August 24. "JioPhone will be physically available to those who have pre-booked, on a first come first serve basis, September onwards," Ambani said.
Jio stormed into the highly competitive telecom sector last September with a six-month promotional offer of free voice and data, which has helped it mobilise 125 million users, and is now looking to hit it big with a new phone.
The company will make available 5 million phones every week and manufacture all JioPhones in India from last quarter of this year, he said, indicating that the phones are made by a vendor outside the country.
In a move to carry forward the present business for new generations, Ambani invited his twin children -- Akash and Isha -- on to the stage to present features of the phone. The 25-year-old twins also did a live demo of the phones. Ambani's wife Nita, already on board of RIl, was present on the dais while mother Kokilaben and younger son Anant sat in the front row.
"Reliance@50 will aspire to become -- and will certainly become -- one among the top 50 companies in the world," he said in the one-and-half hour speech that was punctuated with applause and whistling by those present. I am confident that Reliance's own growth over the next 10 years and our contribution to the Indian economy will surpass what it has achieved in the past 40 years," he said.
Talking about RIl's energy and material businesses, Amabani claimed that they have potential to more than double pre-tax profit to Rs 1,00,000 crore within the next few years. Encouraging RIl stakeholders in the AGM, Ambani also announced that the board has decided to issue one bonus share for every share held -- the first such issue after 8 years -- and a dividend of Rs 13 a share.
From a textile company, RIl has grown into energy, materials, consumer and digital businesses. The AGM was marked as the 40th anniversary since its IPO. "Our turnover has grown from Rs 70 crore in 1977 to over Rs 3,30,000 crore today -- an increase of nearly 4,700 times. Our net profit has grown from Rs 3 crore to nearly Rs 30,000 crore in the same period -- a growth of over 10,000 times," he said.
"Our total assets have increased from Rs 33 crore to over Rs 7,00,000 crore and a multiple of over 20,000 times. Market capitalisation has multiplied to Rs 5 lakh crore," he added.
He said further that Rs 1,000 invested in Reliance shares in 1977 are today worth Rs 16,54,503 -- over 1,600 times more valuable. "In simple terms, this means that your money has doubled every two and a half years over the past 40 years," he told shareholders.
RIl has invested Rs 2 lakh crore in starting a national fourth-generation mobile network that added seven customers per second every single day since launch. "In just 6 months of Jio's launch, data consumption in India went from 20 crore GB to 120 crore GB per month and has been multiplying ever since. Indeed, India has overtaken the US and China in mobile data usage," Ambani added.
Before Jio's launch, India was 155th in the world in mobile broadband penetration. "Now, India is number 1 in mobile data consumption and well on its way to becoming number 1 in mobile broadband penetration in coming months," he said.
Ambani family scions Akash and Isha debuted before RIl shareholders introducing 4G-enabled feature phone.
Accompanied by a fellow director on the Reliance Jio board, Kiran Thomas, the 25-year-old twins introduced a new cheaper handset JioPhone that was announced by their father and RIl chairman Mukesh Ambani at the AGM.
While Isha restricted to describing the product features, Akash and Thomas showcased the detailed workings like how the phone, which is available at an "effective" cost of zero, operates on voice commands.