Reliance to launch 4G VoLTE Feature Phones starting Rs 999, says report

Reliance Jio is reportedly planning to unveil its feature phones with added 4G VoLTE support and will be priced between Rs 999 and Rs 1,500. The phones will come with bundled free calls alongside other services.

In a report published by Hindustan Times, Reliance Jio will use Spreadtrum chipsets to enable 4G VoLTE calls on the Rs 1,500 feature phones. The report cites unnamed sources that Reliance Jio is “expectedly in talks” with Qualcomm and MediaTek, which accounts for a huge chunk of the processors used in smartphones nowadays.

The Reliance Jio VoLTE feature phones may become a platform for the company to promote its bundled apps, such as Jio Chat, Live TV, Video-on-demand, and JioMoney. Reliance Jio’s VoLTE feature phones are also expected to have cameras on the front and back.

Two 4G VoLTE feature phones by Reliance Jio are said to be in the works. However there is no clarity on as to when these devices will be launched. According to IDC’s Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Reliance Jio was the fifth-biggest smartphone vendor of India in Q3 2016.

In the current smartphone market, 4G VoLTE phones are available at a starting price of around Rs 3,500-4,000. The low-cost VoLTE-enabled feature phones is slated to bring a majority of the Jio’s free calling service to a large section of the mobile phone market that has not been able to make use of the free services as they being limited to smartphones so far.