Reliance Jio likely to price 5G smartphone between ₹8,000 and ₹12,000

Amidst the preparation to roll out 5G services by Diwali this year, Reliance Jio is likely to price its flagship 5G smartphone, JioPhone Next 5G between ₹8,000 to ₹12,000, according to a report by Counterpoint Research. Through this, the telco is aiming to attract the massive 4G smartphone users market to its 5G network. The company currently has 421 million mobile broadband subscribers on its 4G network, with a pan-India fibre-optic network of more than 11 lakh kilometres in length.

Launched in November last year and manufactured at the company’s facilities in Tirupati and Sriperumbudur in association with Google, Reliance Jio's 5G Smartphone is powered by Qualcomm’s QM215 SoC processor, which is a toned-down variant of the Snapdragon 425. The smartphone features a 5.45-inch LCD display with 720*1440 pixels resolution. The research firm said that by launching JioPhone Next, the company has used its similar strategy of attracting “hundreds of millions of 2G feature phone users to its 4G network.”

“The two-pronged strategy will be the key to Jio’s growth and extend its leadership to the 5G era as well. Further, at some point in 2024, Jio will also be compelled to launch an affordable 5G mmWave + Sub-6 GHz smartphone as the cost deltas between the two would have narrowed significantly from the BoM (Bill of Materials) fitting perspective,” the research firm said.

At Reliance Industries’ 44th Annual General Meeting last month, Mukesh Ambani said that this year Reliance Jio will roll out 5G services in key Indian cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. Moreover, by making an investment of Rs 2 crore, the company will launch 5G services throughout the country by December 2023.

“Jio 5G will be True 5G in every sense, and I believe that India deserves nothing less than True 5G. At the recent auction conducted by the Department of Telecommunications, we acquired the largest and the most appropriate mix of wireless spectrum for 5G. This gives Jio 5G a distinct competitive advantage over other operators," Ambani said.

“We will use our wireless and wireline assets to blanket 3.3 million square kilometres of India's landmass with fibre quality broadband,” Ambani added.

At the 5G spectrum auction held in July this year, Reliance Jio invested a whopping ₹88,078 crore to acquire 700MHz, 3300MHz and 26GHz bands. As of July 2022, Reliance Jio holds the maximum market share at 36.23%, followed by Airtel and Vodafone Idea which hold 31.66% and 22.22% market share, respectively.