Reliance JioPhone pre-bookings to resume post-Diwali: Report

Reliance Jio is said to kick start the pre-booking process for the second phase of the JioPhone after Diwali.

Reliance Jio will kick start the pre-booking process for the second phase of the JioPhone after Diwali. That’s according to a PTI report, which claims the second phase of the JioPhone pre-booking will only start post-Diwali. Going by the news, JioiPhone should be delivered to customers sometime in the last week of October or first week of November. Reliance Jio has not issued an official statement on the same.

Clearly, Reliance Jio’s focus has been to complete the first phase of the pre-booking process. An estimated 6 million JioPhones have been booked so far, which is no small number by any measurement. Reliance Jio has said to receive close to 10 million expressions of interests from across the country which includes metros, small towns, and rural areas in particular. The company has been facing a challenging situation to deliver the 4G-enabled feature phone to millions of users in such as short time. Reliance Jio started delivering the JioPhone during the Navratri, and is expected to compete the second phase of pre-booking of the phone after Diwali.

Reliance JioPhone is a single-SIM phone which only works with a Reliance Jio SIM card. As for specifications, JioPhone features an Alphanumeric keypad, a 2.4-inch QVGA display, and it runs KaiOS. It supports voice commands in 22 Indian languages. Connectivity options on the JioPhone include a headphone jack, microphone, speaker, and FM Radio. The advanced 4G VoLTE phone gets a 2MP camera on the back, along with a VGA front shooter. JioPhone featurs 4GB internal memory, 512MB RAM and support for a microSD slot to expand internal storage.

Reliance Jio is committed to offer free voice calls on JioPhone. As for data, the company has announced monthly, weekly, and 2-day unlimited data plans exclusively for JioPhone users. The monthly plan costs Rs 153, while the weekly and 2-day plans are priced at Rs 54 and Rs 24 respectively.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio’s arch rival in the telecom space Airtel has launched a 4G-ready smartphone in collaboration with Karbonn. The phone promises to offer full Android experience at Rs 1399 (effective price). Users will have to pay Rs 2,899 upfront to buy the Karbonn A40 Indian and make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169 each. Post this, users will get a cash refund of Rs 500 after 18 months and another Rs 1000 after 36 months. The total cash benefits add up to Rs 1500.