Are Indian Consumers Ready to Purchase 4G VoLTE Feature Phones Just to Enjoy Luring Tariff Plans?

A year ago, Reliance Jio disrupted the Indian telecom market with free LTE services, followed by attractive tariff plans. A year after, the same operator is aiming to create waves with a feature phone- the JioPhone. However, this device is aimed at 500 million people in India who can’t afford a smartphone.

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At the time of announcing the JioPhone, Mukesh Ambani said that the company is aiming to sell five million JioPhones every week. Nevertheless, the company has taken pre-bookings only once, and in which it received six million bookings, and is currently in the process of delivering the JioPhones.

It isn’t surprising that a lot of people are in the queue to purchase the feature phone, considering the affordable price tag of Rs. 1,500. Of course, there might be many people who would have rejected the delivery after reading the updated terms and conditions from Reliance Jio, and there’s a huge possibility that the demand for JioPhone will not be the same as it was in the first prebooking.

If the JioPhone is its primary highlight, the second one is the attractive tariff plan. Reliance Jio is offering a bundled tariff plan of Rs. 153 which gives 500MB data per day and unlimited voice calls for 28 days. It also provides access to Jio’s digital entertainment apps such as JioCinema, JioTV, etc.

After Reliance Jio announcing a 4G VoLTE feature phone, BSNL has partnered with Micromax and recently launched the Micromax Bharat 1 4G VoLTE smartphone with a bundled tariff plan of Rs. 97 that gives 5GB high-speed data and unlimited voice calls for 28 days.

And it seems like this ploy from telecom operators is working as Indian consumers are ready to purchase a feature phone in 2017 just to enjoy bundled tariff plans. If JioPhone is a classic example of consumers interest in affordably priced 4G VoLTE feature phone, then the hidden success of the phone will be the tariff plan.