Reliance Jio launches huge drive to sell its VoLTE-enabled feature phone

The deadline for Jio 4G feature phone approaches and the Reliance has launched a massive rollout exercise with plans to deliver a lakh sets per day to retailers.

Reliance Jio is targeting selling around 4-5 million phones a week. The phone will be available priced at Rs 1500 and this amount will be returned to customer after 36 months when they deposit the phone.  

The VoLTE-enabled feature phone is open for pre-booking from August 24, it was made available for beta testing from August 15 to August 23.  “Reliance Jio has started reaching out to retailers about the handset and has begun educating them about the delivery process.

Jio Phone will be marketed under RIL’s Lyf brand and is going to be sold through Reliance Digital stores as well as Jio Centres. Reliance Digital operates a chain of consumer electronics stores through a network of 1,996 outlets with its presence in over 700 cities. The company also has 1,072 Jio Centres. 

Reliance in the first round will provide every dealer with 40 Jio Phones, which can be availed only through Jio vouchers and this will be on a first come first served basis. The dealer can purchase up to 40 phones in the first instance by paying the firm Rs 20,000, which means Rs 500 per voucher per phone.

“The phones are being imported from Taiwan and will land at various location such as Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. From here the devices will be sent to Jio Centres and Reliance Digital stores from where they will be directly sent to the dealers. The firm will also use the services other logistic companies,” a senior executive told to financial express. 

This is a 4G Volte phone with a bar design and 2.4-inch QVGA display that is not touch senstive. Along with a dedicated button for torchlight, it will also come with an alphanumeric keypad, microphone, speaker and will support all Indian languages. It has an SOS feature as well, which can be activated by pressing 5.