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Jio phone effective price to be zero, says Mukesh Ambani at Reliance AGM

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani at company's AGM in Mumbai. Read his speech. Kokilaben Ambani breaks down.

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced the launch of Jio phone, a feature phone loaded with smartphone features at an "effective price of zero". "Jio will give them access to unlimited data on the JioPhone at Rs 153 per month," he said at the conglomerate's 40th Annual General Meeting at Birla Matushri Sabhagar. 21 "We will collect a 100% refundable security deposit of Rs 1500 which will be refunded after three years," Ambani said. The JioPhone will be available for user testing in beta from 15th August and for pre-booking from 24th August. Ambani introduced his twin children, Akash and Isha, who presented the phone features that include calls and text messaging on voice command, Internet surfing and cable to connect the device to TV to view content, including videos. "JioPhone will make the 2G feature phone obsolete," Ambani claimed, adding that the company is looking to bring 5 million phones to the market a week. The JioPhone will be available for user testing in beta mode from August 15 and for pre-booking from August 24. "Reliance democratised the equity culture in the past. Now, Jio will democratise the digital culture in India," he asserted. "Digital Life will no longer be the privilege of the affluent few." Out of the 78 crore phones in India, Ambani said, 50 crore are feature phones that cannot be used for Internet or data usage. The new phone would give "affordable" device to these 50 crore users and "end the digital exclusion in India". Reliance Jio, the fourth-generation telecom arm of Reliance Industries, will provide unlimited data on the phone for Rs 153 per month. Jio, he said, already has 125 million users since its launch in September last year. Speaking at the event, he earlier said, "India has overtaken the US and China in mobile data usage." "Majority of our free customers have been converted to paid customers," he added. Here's what all he said at the event: 
  • If these users were to consume a similar quantity of data on other operator's network, they would spend Rs 4,000 – 5,000 per month Jio will provide this at ONLY Rs 153 per month, that is one-thirtieth, 3% of the existing price
  • Jio will give them access to UNLIMITED DATA on the JioPhone
  • Reliance launches 4g smartphone at Rs 500
  • Starting 15th August this year, I am declaring DIGITAL FREEDOM for all feature phone users
  • On the JioPhone, voice will ALWAYS be free
  • Today, Jio is going to reinvent the conventional feature phone. Let me introduce India ka Intelligent SmartPhone
  • It took 25 years for our competitors to build 2G network. Jio will have created a larger 4G network in just 3 years
  • In the next 12 months, Jio services will cover 99% of our country's population
  • We shall achieve this in three ways – Connectivity, Data Affordability and Device Affordability
  • This digital disempowerment and unfairness must end. Jio is committing to end it today
  • There are more than 50 crore feature phone users who have been left out of the digital revolution
  • Today, Jio has more than 100 million paying Jio Prime customers. Most have recharged on Jio's Rs 309 or higher plans
  • Before Jio's launch, India was 155th in the world in mobile broadband penetration now India is No 1 in mobile data consumption
  • Indeed, India has overtaken the US and China in mobile data usage
  • Now, Jio customers alone are consuming over 125 crore GB of data a month, including 165 crore hours high-speed video every month making Jio the largest mobile video network
  • In just 6 months of Jio's launch, data consumption in India went from 20 crore GB to 120 crore GB per month
  • We are grateful to @PMOIndia's Digital India,which allows benefits of technology to be passed on to Indian customers
  • Jio users consistently make more than 250 crore minutes of voice and video calls every single day
  • We enabled Jio users to make unlimited voice calls from anywhere to everywhere in India – absolutely free
  • Today Jio has over 125 million customers. We have proved all our sceptics wrong
  • This was the fastest adoption of any technology service, anywhere in the world. Faster than Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype
  • On an average, Jio added 7 customers per second every single day
  • In less than 170 days, more than 100 million customers signed up for Jio's services
  • Jio has broken one world record after another:
  • I want to dedicate these 40 years of achievements and records to our founder Chairman Shri Dhirubhai Ambani
  • In simple terms, this means that your money has doubled every two and a half years over the past 40 years
  • One thousand rupees invested in Reliance shares in 1977 is today worth Rs 16,54,503 – over 1,600 times more valuable
  • Our total assets have increased from 33 crores to over 700,000 crores and a multiple of over 20,000 times
  • Our turnover has grown from 70 crores in 1977 to over 330,000 crores today – an increase of nearly 4,700 times
  • In just 4 decades, Reliance has grown from a small startup to one of the largest, most admired companies in the world
  (With inputs from PTI)
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