JioPhone deliveries start September 21; bookings cross six million

The 4G VoLTE enabled JioPhone's pre-bookings opened on August 24, and the next day it was halted due to high demand. Bookings for the handset crossed three million in a couple of hours.

Now according to reports JioPhone booking crossed a massive six million units within a day. Apart from six million booking, an additional 10 million users registered interest in the handset after the pre-bookings were closed.

This is no surprise given that Jio Phone is effectively priced at Rs. 0, however, you have to shell out Rs. 1,500 as security deposit, with Rs. 500 as pre-booking fee, and the remaining Rs. 1,000 to be paid at the time of delivery. The security deposit will be refunded after three years, and you'll have to return the handset as well.

The figure exceeded Reliance Jio's expectation, as the company plans to roll out five million JioPhones a week, and sell two million units within two years. With JioPhone, the company is targeting over 50 crore feature phone users who are still on 2G/3G connection to migrate to 4G networks at an affordable cost.

Lastly the report mentions that Reliance Jio will start shipping the JioPhone on Navaratri, which begins on September 21.

To recap the specs, the JioPhone comes with 2.4-inch QVGA display, quad-core Spreadtrum/Qualcomm 205 processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, front and back camera, and 2000mAh battery that's rated to deliver 12 hours of talk time and 15 days of standby time. It runs Kai OS, and supports 4G VoLTE, WiFi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, microSD card slot for connectivity. Sadly, it gets only a single SIM slot and WiFi Hotspot function is not supported.

The handset also comes pre-loaded with select Jio suite of apps like JioMusic, JioCinema, JioTV, JioXpressNews and MyJio and there's a dedicated button to access voice enabled Jio Assistant, that lets you make calls, send SMS, browse internet, open apps and more. It also supports 22 regional languages.

Reliance Jio is offering three packs to take full advantage of JioPhone's services: a monthly Rs. 153 pack, weekly Rs. 54 pack and two days Rs. 24 pack. All these plans offer unlimited voice calls, SMS and data (w/ 500MB FUP per day). 

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