In the Indian telecom industry, the entry of Reliance Jio is a great momentum behind the new-age price war. Reliance Jio rolled out its services officially on 1 September 2016, and now it has already crossed over 100 million user base. A couple of days ago, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio also announced their much-awaited 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phone, dubbed as “JioPhone” in India with an “effective price” of Rs. 0 (Zero). Yes, you read that right. Reliance Jio’s effectively free offering of low-cost 4G enabled VoLTE handset has triggered a new form of handset revolution in the Indian telecom sector, and now Idea is the latest contender in this new-age telecom war.
To counter Reliance Jio’s JioPhone, Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular is reportedly planning to launch a new 4G enabled feature phone in the Indian market pretty soon. The upcoming Idea feature phone is expected to be priced at Rs. 2,500. Idea Cellular managing director Himanshu Kapania made these remarks during an analyst call.
“The practical solution that we are working on is to work with the handset industry and work with them to be able to bring down cost of handsets by bringing down the bill of material, so that the gap of the announced price of Jio feature phone versus a smartphone can be brought down to reasonable levels,” Himanshu Kapania, the Managing Director of Idea Cellular Limited, the third largest telecom operator, was quoted while interacting with the analysts in an analyst call. Kapania also revealed that the exact pricing details of the upcoming handset are yet to be decided, but it is likely to be priced around Rs 2,500.
Interestingly, Mr Kapania also pointed out that JioPhone will most likely work only with Reliance Jio connections and offer free voice calls to those customers, who are preferred to use voice calling. Further, it might not be suitable for those users who need to browse the internet. The JioPhone will have smaller screen size, won’t support Android OS, will not allow accessing most of the apps available in the market and it will force the users to install individual operator’s apps.
But Idea’s upcoming low-cost 4G handset is expected to support dual-SIM with 2G and 4G networks connectivity and it would allow the users to choose their own network, and install their own apps like Google, Facebook and WhatsApp (whichever app they want) as well. Currently, the third largest mobile network company (India) is working with handset makers and has also joined the hands of country’s second biggest telecom operator, Vodafone to launch cheapest ever smartphones in the market. The company is also looking at how much features can be brought down, how much bill of material can be brought down, so that the handsets can be offered at lower prices.
“While we have no intention to subsidise handsets, both handset manufacturers and telecom operators need each other to make sure that the offering to the consumer is strong enough when you have to make a choice between a bundle offer and telecom operator with a locked handset,” Mr Kapania further added.
As we mentioned earlier, Reliance unveiled its 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phone in India on July 21 with an “effective price” of Rs. 0 (Zero). The JioPhone is effectively free, but to protect the misuse of the free offer, the company is collecting Rs. 1500 as a one-time refundable security deposit, which will be will be 100% refundable after three years. The new Jio 4G VoLTE feature phone will be available for user testing in beta from 15th August, while it will be up for pre-booking from August 24 from the MyJio app and Jio physical retail stores across the country. Interested customers who pre-book will be able to buy the phone from September 2017, on a first come first serve basis.
