It is said that the company will start selling Jio 5G smartphones for less than Rs 5,000 and will further reduce its price after scaling up the operations. Currently, good 5G smartphones in India start from Rs 27,000. With Jio launching cheaper smartphones, the aim is to target 20-30 crore mobile phone users who are currently using a 2G connection. Read: Reliance Jio Announces ‘Made In India’ 5G Solutions Reliance has also collaborated with tech giant Google to develop entry-level affordable 4G smartphones for the Indian users. Together the two powerhouses are working on building an Android-based smartphone operating system. The goal of this commercial pact is to make India free of 2G. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, has also requested the government to come forward and assist the telecom company in their efforts to make India 2G free. He said that India has millions of 2G users in India who are not able to enjoy even the most basic internet services whereas other countries have also started embracing 5G technology. He also stated that 2G users are unable to explore the digital revolution to its fullest. Read: Jio Orbic 5G Phone: Latest Jio Phone 2020 Facebook has agreed to invest $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crores) in Reliance Jio for a 9.9 percent stake in the telecommunication subsidiary. Notably, it’s the largest minority stake investment in the tech industry as well as the largest FDI in the Indian tech sphere so far. At Reliance’s 43rd Annual General Meeting, Mukesh Ambani had stressed to make India “2G-mukt”. Reliance Telecom is currently working on its 5G network equipment and has asked the Department of Telecom to assign it a spectrum for testing before exporting these products. Currently, India lacks 5G services and even the government has failed to allocate spectrum to telecom operators for conducting field trials that are focussed on promoting a domestic ecosystem for next-generation technology.
