Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has announced the much-anticipated JioPhone in India at the company’s 40th Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai. Although it’s a feature phone that comes with many smart features with affordable tariff plans. As per the company, JioPhone is effectively free, but you will have to pay the refundable security deposit of ₹ 1500. You can get a full refund of the security deposit by returning the used JioPhone after 3 years. It will be available for user testing in beta from 15th August and for pre-booking from 24th August 2017.
You can pre-order this device from MyJio app and also from Jio outlets. Shipping begins for those who have pre-booked, on a first come first serve basis starting September 2017. Also, as per Jio, from the last quarter 2017, all JioPhones will be made in India and 5 million Phones will be available every week.
JioPhone Specifications
JioPhone features a 2.4-inch QVGA display and comes pre-loaded with JioMusic, JioCinema, and JioTV apps. Furthermore, It also comes with built-in Voice assistant, lets you make calls, surf internet, play music etc. You can even use the voice assistant to Play music on the JioMusic or watch movies on the JioMovie app.
Other key specifications are 4G VoLTE, 22 Regional languages, 4-way navigation button, Alphanumeric keypad, Torch light, microSD slot, FM Radio etc. It also features NFC for wireless payments which will be available later this year via a software update. Another major highlight of this phone is the safety feature wherein long pressing the 5 button on the keypad will send a distress message along with the location and coordinates to predefined numbers. Apart from this, Jio is also soon integrating local Police and other emergency services with this safety feature.
JioPhone Tariff Plans
There are two main tariff plans – ₹ 153 and ₹ 309. The ₹ 153 Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan plan comes with Unlimited data, Call and Jio Apps. The ₹ 309 pack lets you watch JioTV on smart TV’s as well as conventional CRT Tv’s using Jio Phone TV cable. Apart from the monthly pack, Jio has also announced two Sachet Packs. ₹ 24 pack comes with 2-days of validity and ₹ 54 pack comes with 7 days validity. There will be a fair usage policy of half a GB (500MB) per day, to ensure that bandwidth is fairly apportioned for every user.