New Delhi: The delivery of about 6 million Reliance JioPhones will start on Sunday and be completed within 15 days, as per a channel partner of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL).
Deliveries of the low-cost 4G handsets will begin from rural areas and small towns before urban centres, the partner, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.
“The chairman (Mukesh Ambani) had said that the Reliance JioPhone will bridge digital divide between rural and urban India. Therefore, delivery of JioPhone will start this Sunday in rural areas and small towns,” the channel partner said.
Queries sent to Reliance Jio did not elicit any response.
Pre-booking of the Reliance JioPhone started on 24 August against payment of a refundable deposit of Rs500. The remainder Rs1,000 has to be paid by the customer when the company starts delivering the handsets. The entire amount will be refunded against return of the phone after three years.
“The delivery of first lot of 6 million will be completed in 10-15 days,” the person said. He, however, was not aware of the dates for the next round of booking for Reliance JioPhone.
According to CyberMedia Research, a total of 61.8 million mobiles were shipped in the second quarter of 2017. With 6 million units of sale, Reliance JioPhone is estimated to account for around 10% of India’s total mobile phone market in a quarter.
Reliance Jio chairman Mukesh Ambani had announced that voice calling for customers of Reliance JioPhone would always be free and they would get unlimited data for a month against a payment of Rs153. JioPhone will come with pre-loaded Reliance Jio apps for messaging and entertainment. The phone can be connected with television sets for watching live TV using the Reliance Jio TV app.