Reliance Jio has reportedly started the second round of JioPhone sale in the country. The company has finished delivering the six million JioPhones who purchased the device in the first phase. Jio will first focus on the 10 million customers who have shown interest in buying the JioPhone before the first sale.
The Mukesh Ambani-led telecom company already started sending an SMS to the interested customers beginning this Sunday. That said, clicking the link in the message doesn't do anything at least for now, but a report from Economic Times cites that a unique code will be given to the customers whoever clicks the link. And the customers should carry the code to the nearest retail store to purchase the JioPhone.
And a person familiar with the matter said to ET as "Of the many who are interested, about 6-7 million will ultimately buy the phone." However, the report did not reveal anything about when the company will deliver the code though, and it is unknown whether the company will take the pre-orders or not.
The JioPhone was launched at the AGM meeting in July 2017, and since then, Jio took the interest of the customers looking to purchase the feature phone. The pre-booking began on August 24 and continued till August 26. In the first phase, Jio received a whopping six million orders for the JioPhone, which it finished delivering to the customers recently.
For the unaware, the JioPhone is effectively priced at Rs 0, but the company is charging Rs 1,500 as a security deposit, which will be replaced after three years. Reliance Jio Infocomm is under tremendous pressure at the moment as it's not delivering any new offers to the customers.
In fact, Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, and Idea Cellular have partnered with various domestic mobile manufacturers and already launched their own bundled feature phones and smartphones. That said, Jio has to figure out something very quickly to bail itself from the trouble. Also, it's interesting to see how many people will purchase the JioPhone in the second phase because the operator has updated the terms and conditions for the feature phone, which is underwhelming.
