All You Need To Know About Reliance Jio’s ‘Affordable’ 5G Phone Which May Launch On 24 June

The 44th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries will be held on 24 June and this event is intended to be a major occasion with a lot of announcements. Reports suggested that the debut of Jio Phone 5G might be one of those huge announcements.

Over the past few months, some reports have emerged about this low-cost 5G smartphone and some of them claimed that the price of the device will cost less than Rs 5,000, while others claim it could be as little as 2,500.

This means that there is a possibility of having a new smartphone in the market which could be priced lower than currently affordable 4G devices.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently stated during a virtual conference with some reporters from the Asia Pacific region that the Alphabet-owned company is currently working closely with the Indian telecommunication giant to launch an affordable smartphone in the country.

With an investment of more than Rs 33,000 crore, the American tech giant owns 7.7 per cent of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio. However, for the new Jio smartphone, Google is also expected to create a unique Android-based software, according to reports.

Earlier, it was speculated that Jio would introduce its own Operating System (OS) for the 5G smartphone, dubbed Jio Operating System or JioOS. Google’s OS will be lighter than the Android One version, which is designed for low-cost Android handsets.

But due to the coronavirus pandemic related restrictions in India and other parts of the world, both companies are currently facing supply-chain related challenges.

These issues may cause a limited availability of Jio 5G phones in the first few weeks after its launch.

There are other 5G smartphones on the market in India right now, but the Jio 5G Phone stands apart because it is the result of a collaboration between two major tech companies.

This is the first time Jio and Google have collaborated on a project together.

Reliance Jio, in its 5G experiments, has already attained speeds of over 1Gbps. Recently, Jio started 5G field trials using its own hardware in Mumbai and reportedly is in talks with Nokia, Samsung, as well as Ericsson for trials to carry out in other cities.

As per the speculations, Ambani could also reveal the Jio 5G plans during the AGM.

During the event, Reliance is expected to announce the formal arrival of 5G in India at the AGM and also would introduce its new inexpensive Jio laptop, dubbed JioBook — its key details and a photograph were leaked in March this year.

The laptop is believed to operate on a custom Android version and be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset.

In terms of 5G’s launch in India, Ericsson said in a report that about 67 per cent of consumers who participated in a survey are interested in adopting the 5G connection when it becomes available in the country.

As per the Swedish telecom giant, by the end of 2026, 5G would account for roughly 26 per cent of all mobile subscribers in India — which is anticipated to be around 330 million.