Reliance Jio stormed into the highly competitive telecom market in September 2016 by announcing very affordable 4G plans. In September this year, Jio’s head Mukesh Ambani revealed that the company is gearing up to launch a world-class 5G service in the country. A fresh report by India’s Economic Times states that Reliance Jio is planning to launch a 5G-enabled Jio Phone priced around Rs 2,500 (~$34) in India.
Reliance Jio’s company official said, “Jio wants to bring the device for less than Rs 5,000. When we scale up the sales, it can be priced in the range of Rs 2,500 (~$34) – Rs 3,000 (~$41).” Currently, the OnePlus Nord that is priced at Rs 24,999 is the cheapest 5G smartphone in India. While various companies have been launching flagship and upper-midrange phones with 5G support in India, it is yet to become a 5G-ready country.
In 2016, Jio sold the 4G-ready Jio Phone for free in India through an offer that required them to pay a refundable deposit of Rs 1,500. Probably, the company may adopt the same strategy for its entry-level 5G phone.
The government of India is yet to allocate spectrum to telecom service providers for carrying field trials of 5G networks. Meanwhile, Reliance Jio is working on its own 5G equipment and it is currently waiting for allocation of 5G spectrum from the Department of Telecom. While the commercialization of the 5G networks, Reliance Jio aims to turn the existing 200 to 300 million 2G users into 5G subscribers.
The first Jio Phone with 5G support is expected to debut next year. There are reports that the end of the year may see the arrival of a new 4G Android phone from the brand that could be priced around Rs 4,000 ($54). Last month, Reliance Jio announced that Google invested Rs 33,737 crore for a 7.7 percent stake in Jio Platforms so that both companies can build a new version of Android OS for low-priced smartphones.
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