JioPhone 2, Jio GigaFiber, Jio GigaTV announced: Things you need to know

Mukesh Ambani said upgraded JioPhones will have social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service Whatsapp.

Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced the launch of JioPhone 2, Jio fixed broadband services (Jio GigaFibre) and Jio Digital TV services (Jio GigaTV set-top box) at the company’s 41st annual general meeting, which was held in Mumbai. The company also said its upgraded JioPhones will have social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service Whatsapp.

JioPhone 2

Like JioPhone, the JioPhone 2 is also a KaiOS-based 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phone, but with a full QWERTY keyboard and a wide horizontal screen. The phone sports a 2.4 QVGA screen, 4-way navigation key with a dedicated key for voice commands, dual-SIM slots and microSD card slot. In terms of specifications, the phone boasts 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal space, expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. Powering the phone is a 2,000 mAh battery, and the phone features in-build FM, NFC, GPS and Wi-Fi. The JioPhone 2 will also have access to social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service WhatsApp. The phone will be available starting from August 15 at an introductory price of Rs 2,999.

Jio GigaFibre

After running trials at select cities, Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced Jio’s fixed-line broadband services, which would be launched in 1,100 cities simultaneously for homes, merchants and small and medium enterprises and large enterprises. According to the company, Jio GigaFibre services would offer internet speed of up to one gigabyte per second (Gbps). The company did not announce the launch date or plans, but interested users can register their interest for Jio GigaFibre services on Jio web portal starting August 15. The locality that shows major interest would be among the first locations to get Jio’s home broadband services, according to Mukesh Ambani.

Jio GigaTV

Jio’s digital television content services is a part of GigaFibre internet services. The GigaTV set-top-box would offer internet-based digital content services, along with access to Jio’s app suite. Interestingly, the set-top-box would also support a video calling feature, which would allow users to make video calls from their televisions. It is still to be seen how the feature would work as the televisions currently does not support camera, in-build or external. The GigaTV remote would be voice-enabled, which would make it work with voice commands – something similar to how the Amazon’s Fire Stick remote works.