Reliance Jio soon may launch its new 4G VoLTE feature phone within this month, with brokerage HSBC putting the price as low as Rs 500 This move can bring a disruption in the telecom market.
The launch could be announced at Reliance General Meeting on July 21 as its 84-day Dhan Dhana Dhan offer — announced on April 11 — is ending soon.
Under Dhan Dhana Dhan offer, the company offered a 3-month subscription for 4G data, unlimited calling, and SMS on a monthly recharge of 309 and above.
Jio is likely to price its 4G phone at Rs 500 to attract 2G customers to directly switch to use 4G service. Experts are hoping to provide cheap and attractive tariffs with their cheap 4G VoLTE phones so that the number of active subscribers increases. After the launch of Jio, the company initially grew very fast, but due to lack of budget 4G phones in the market, the growth slowed. But after bringing cheap 4G VoLTE phones, the company will be able to target millions of 2G feature phone users. As of April 2017, 112.55 million subscribers of Jio.
Jio is only the telecom network which is providing 4G VoLTE service. Other competitors like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea are on trial for 4G VolTE. None of the company has launched this service commercially.
Jio is ready to make launch with its new 4G device in the market. The company is ready for 18 to 20 million orders. The handset manufacturer sells 5 million feature phones per month and 15 million smartphones per month. According to those who are aware of its details, shipment of this phone can be started at the end of July or early August.
If Jio is targeting Urban market than an anytime phone can be launch, but if they are targeting rural market than they have to wait for 2 months from now. “Rural markets are linked to farming and thus have seasonal cash-flows with their cash collection months being October and February when they harvest and sell their products in the market. We argue launch is likely in September/October as it is a cash collection month for farmers as well as being a festive season across India”
When Jio launched in September 2016. Jio offered cheap phones with unlimited calling and unlimited data usage. Jio forced their rivals to crumble and some rivals to get unite against Jio Infocomm.
In February, India’s biggest telecom Bharti Airtel bought Norway telecom Telenor. Vodafone Merged with Aditya Birla group Idea Cellular, to become the biggest telecom company in India.
However, Jio controls the biggest chunk on 4G in India.