Low-Cost 4G/5G Smartphones From Jio, Google Launch By March, 2021; Price Starts From Rs 4000?

Earlier this year, telecom major Reliance Jio entered into a partnership with Alphabet’s wholly owned subsidiary, Google International LLC.

As per this partnership announced at Reliance’s virtual annual general meeting in July, Google stated that it would invest $4.5 billion or Rs 33,800 crore in Jio to acquire 7.73% stake in the company.

One of the primary reasons for Google to invest in Jio is its ambitious plan to launch cheap, mass-produced 5G Android phones, in association with Reliance.

We have kept you thoroughly updated about Google and Jio’s highly-awaited 5G smartphones in India and their anticipated pricings.

While the highly-awaited 5G phone was anticipated to roll out in December 2020, it will unfortunately not launch until another 3 months, as per sources.

Let’s learn in detail about this.

Jio-Google 5G Smartphone Launch Delays by 3 Months

Google and Reliance Jio had earlier announced developing a complete 5G solution from scratch.

Further talking about its partnership with Google, Jio announced about creating a new “value-engineered” Android-based smartphone operating system. 

While Google could provide expertise via Android OS, Jio would use its expansive network and hardware capabilities to launch their 5G smartphones.

However, according to present ongoing developments, the Jio-Google smartphone may not launch in December, 2020 as anticipated earlier.

Sources of 91mobiles have informed that these phones are still undergoing the testing phase, thereby pushing the launch by another 3 months’ time.

Jio Asks DoT to Allocate 5G Spectrum

In 2017, Reliance launched its Jio Phone in the country, which immediately attracted over 100 million users, much of whom were first-time internet users.

Now, with an aim to drive the country towards a ‘2G mukt Bharat’, Reliance CEO, Mukesh Ambani announced to develop an entry level affordable 4G and 5G (possibly) smartphones, jointly with Google.

According to reports, Reliance is also working on its 5G network equipment and has asked the Department of Telecom to allocate its spectrum for testing before exporting these products.

Currently, India doesn’t have 5G services. The government too has not allocated the required spectrum to telecom operators for running field trials.

“We believe we can design an entry-level 4G or even 5G smartphone for a fraction of its current cost. To power such a value-engineered smartphone, we also need an equally value-engineered operating system, and such an operating system must be designed from grounds-up”, said Ambani at Reliance’s AGM in July.

To know more about the pricing of these 5G phones, click here.