Reliance Jio Phone All you want to know Specs, features, pre booking, availability and much more

While the Jio Phone generated a lot of excitement after the Reliance Jio AGM 2017.

The Reliance Industries Limited chairman called the new JioPhone ‘India ka smartphone’, and it comes loaded with features like expandable SD card slot, 4-way navigation, and more. Ambani, in his address, was expected to bring out a new 4G VoLTE enabled feature phone. The feature phone has been a point of much anticipation after leaks and rumours started doing the rounds. The JioPhone comes with an Alphanumeric keypad and features a headphone jack, microphone, speaker, and supports FM Radio as well. The 4G VoLTE-enabled JioPhone supports all languages, and users can speak to the device via voice commands. The company is giving people an option to browse the Internet on the new JioPhone as well, and it comes pre-loaded with Jio apps. The JioPhone’s effective price is Rs 0. This means, you can buy the phone at Rs 1500, which will be refunded after 3 years, Ambani said. The phone will be sold as first come-first serve basis from September 2017. From features, availability to price and data Plans, here is a list of 15 things you should know about JioPhone.

Price and data plans:

• Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani on Friday announced the JioPhone, a 4G VoLTE feature phone which he called ‘India ka Smartphone’.
• The JioPhone’s effective price is Rs 0. This means, you can buy the phone at Rs 1500, which will be refunded after 3 years.
• The phone is a feature phone, but with a larger screen, access to apps and of course 4G data and 4G VoLTE calls and will effectively cost the customer Rs 0 for the device.
• JioPhone users will have to pay just Rs 153 a month, including the cost of the phone. There will be a weekly plan of Rs 54 and a two-day plan of Rs 24 with all the same features.

Availability and date of sale:

• The phone will be available for beta testing from August 15 and for prebooking from August 24.
• The phones will be available for sale at a first come, first serve basis from the last quarter of 2017. The target is to make 5 million phones available every week.
• The JioPhone will always have free voice calls. From August 15, the JioPhone will come with free unlimited data.
• The phone has been created by Indian engineers for an Indian audience.

Other things to know:

• The phone will offer an innovative cable link to television to help users view content on a big screen at home. Users will need to buy the Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan package of Rs 309 to get the extra data needed for this.
• The phone also responds to voice commands, which is unprecedented for a feature phone anywhere in the world.
• Jio will be the greatest accelerator of the Bharat-India connectivity, said Mukesh Ambani.
• Mukesh Ambani declared 15th August 2017, as ‘DIGITAL FREEDOM’ for all feature phone users with JioPhone.

There still are a lot of unanswered questions around the Jio Phone, which we try to answer on this episode of Orbital podcast. Phone enthusiasts Roydon Cerejo and Aditya Shenoy join host Pranay Parab to talk about this.

Why people should not blindly believe everything promised at the Reliance Jio event. A little bit of healthy scepticism is good for all launches.I am speaking about Reliance Jio's make in India aspirations and whether the company can deliver the promised 5 million units every week.

Look at the kind of battery life one can expect from the Jio Phone. With a colour screen and 4G LTE connectivity, wonder how long the battery of the feature phone will last. Also raise questions around Jio Phone's refundable security deposit and under what conditions will one be given the refund. 

 As of now not much is known about the OS running on Jio Phone. I am talking about the software and the apps once can expect on the phone. 

Finally, I am talking about the phones that Jio Phone will compete with. I am talking about the effect of Jio Phone on the competition and whether this could spur a low-cost 4G LTE phone boom in the market.

malware attack on BSNL Broadband Users for Default Modem Password

State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nagam Limited (BSNL) has advised all its broadband users to change their default modem password after a section of its broadband systems was hit by a malware attack. As per report that almost 2,000 broadband modems were affected by the malware, where subscribers had not changed default password "admin".

"The situation has been addressed to a great extent. We are advising customers that they should immediately change their passwords, and they should not be worried about using broadband once they have done that," BSNL Chairman Anupam Shrivastava told. He said that users who were affected by the malware found themselves unable to login as it changed the password of the router. He added that the attack occurred earlier this week and the compay's call centers were proactively reaching out to users to not only alert them. but also advise them about any precautionary measures to take. The report noted that the attack did not affect BSNL's core network, billing or any other system

A few months ago, BSNL unveiled a new broadband plan called ‘BB Unlimited 249’ that offered up to 200GB of data per month at Rs 249. Users would get data speeds of up to 2Mbps till 1GB, after which the speeds would drop to 1Mbps. In addition, users would also get unlimited free alls between 9PM and 7AM, and all Sundays to any network in India. However, the plan would onlyb be valid for six months, after which the user would be shifted to the ‘BBG Combi ULD 499’ plan that costs Rs 499.