India’s richest man unveils a $12 4G phone with digital pay and streaming technology

Image credits: Reliance Geo

Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance, has unveiled new mobile and associated tariff plans, the latest in a series of years-long efforts by India’s largest telecom operator as it races to convert users still “trapped” in the country’s legacy. Second generation networks.

Dubbed ‘Jio Bharat’, the phone from Jio Platforms is 4G-enabled and offers a host of modern features, including mobile payment capabilities with UPI, and access to Jio’s on-demand video and music streaming services, JioCinema and JioSaavn.

The company said that it will manufacture Jio Bharat and also partner with other phone manufacturers to adopt the Jio Bharat platform to build phones. The company, billionaire Mukesh Ambani, said in a statement that Delhi-based Karbonn has signed on to the platform.

Reliance said Jio Bharat is priced at 999 Indian rupees, or $12.2. The Indian giant said that Jio Bharat is designed for the 250 million consumers in India who find it too expensive to move to the 4G network. The phone is part of the offer. The other play is the new affordable tariff plan.

Jio Platform has unveiled a new monthly plan that costs just INR 123, or $1.5 and offers 14GB of data usage for the month and unlimited voice calls. For those subscribing a year, the plan costs INR 1,234, or $15.

Reliance said it will start offering Jio Spices to consumers from July 7 as part of a “beta trial”. It said the trial was designed to “ensure scalability” of the platform and operations to upgrade “millions of feature phone users”.

“The new Jio Bharat phone is another step in this direction. It is at the epicenter of innovation, and continues to demonstrate our focus on delivering disproportionate and real value to different segments of users with real and relevant use cases,” Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio, said in a statement. significance.

Jio Bharat isn’t Ambani’s first foray into the world of budget phones. Over the years, India’s richest man has launched multiple devices at affordable prices. In late 2021, the company revealed its inaugural smartphone, which was named JioPhone Next. The project represents a major collaboration with Google, which has introduced a “highly optimized” version of the Android mobile operating system to power the device.

“The JioPhone Next is an affordable smartphone designed for India, inspired by the belief that everyone in India should take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet,” said Sundar Pichai in 2021.

However, the $80 price tag associated with the JioPhone Next has become a hindrance to wider uptake of the phone.