After series of reports and rumours, Reliance Jio’s feature phone with VoLTE support at Rs 1500 will soon be a reality. According to a new report Reliance, Jio is in talks with various Chinese companies like Techchain, FortuneShip and Uniscope to develop 4G VoLTE feature phones. Even Reliance Jio reportedly requested for engineering samples of VoLTE supported feature phones from these companies.
Further, the order numbers and details will be finalised only after the testing of the samples. If all goes as per plan and we would see Jio’s 4G VoLTE feature phones as early as the second half of 2017.
Furthermore, chipmaker Speadtrum has also reportedly shown interest in the segment “We are working on a technology that makes a Rs 1,500 4G feature phone viable. We have already started concept promotions to our partners,” Spreadtrum country head, Neeraj Sharma, told to Economic Times.
Spreadtrum Communications has a two-year-old partnership with Reliance Industries and LYF Flame 5 smartphone is powered by a Speadtrum SoC.
Reliance Jio is not the only company which is trying his hand in 4G supported feature phone space, Lava already launched 4G VoLTE supported feature phone earlier this year, called Lava 4G Connect M1, priced at Rs 3,333, which is relatively pretty high for a feature phone, as Jio’s LYF Band has a smartphone with 4G VoLTE support which is retailing at Rs 2,999.
Another home-grown handset manufacturer, Micromax is expected to launch Bharat 1 4G enabled feature phone for around Rs 3,500 in India soon. Even Intex is expected to launch its 4G VoLTE feature phone soon.