Reliance JioPhone 2 flash sale, GigaFiber registration announced: Know more

Reliance Jio has announced that the company will host a flash sale of the JioPhone 2 on August 16 at the Jio online portal. The company has also started taking registrations for Jio GigaFiber service

Mukesh Ambani-owned telecommunication service provider Reliance Jio has announced that it will host a flash sale of the JioPhone 2 on August 16 at the Jio online portal. The company also announced that the first iteration of the JioPhone would get Facebook, YouTube and Google Maps apps as part of an update on August 15, and WhatsApp would also be available for download sometime soon. The company has also started taking registrations for Jio GigaFiber, a fibre-to-the-home broadband service with a promised speed of up to 1Gbps.

Reliance JioPhone 2

The JioPhone 2 is a second iteration of Reliance Jio’s 4G LTE-enable feature phones. Successor of the JioPhone, the JioPhone 2 features 2.4-inch horizontal screen and full QWERTY keyboard layout. The phone boots KaiOS, which now supports instant messaging and social media apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook, along with YouTube and Google Maps apps. The phone supports voice commands and comes bundled with a suite of Jio apps, including JioTV and Jio Music app.

Priced at Rs 2,999, the phone would be available at Jio online portal through flash sale from August 16 at 12PM onwards.

Reliance Jio GigaFiber

Announced at the Reliance Industries’ 41st Annual General Meeting, the Jio GigaFiber is a home broadband connection that is expected to launch across 1100 cities simultaneously by the end of this year. The GigaFiber would support download speed of up to 1Gbps, according to company’s claim.

At the RIL AGM, Mukesh Ambani had announced that the Reliance Jio GigaFiber had already been under testing in several cities and it would launch simultaneously for homes, small and medium businesses and big corporate houses. He had also announced that the pre-registration for Jio GigaFiber home broadband would open from August 15, and a location that receives most users’ interest would be among the first locations to get the service.

With the Reliance Jio GigaFiber service, the company is promising internet speed of up to 1Gbps. However, the company did not share some information like the preliminary connection cost, security deposit and details of monthly plans. But a recent news report in the Economic Times hinted that the company would focus on volumes to drive demand. Therefore, it would offer broadband services bundled with DTH services at about Rs 500 a month, or effectively half the price of what other cable operators charge for similar services.

As for add-on features of the Jio GigaFiber, unlike most other broadband services, this would not be limited only to internet connection. The FTTH internet service would act as an underlying technology that would allow the company to foray into home automation, home surveillance, landline and cable television services. However, in the beginning, the broadband connection would have only internet services and Jio GigaTV service, which was also announced during the RIL AGM 2018.

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, allowing users to make video calls from their televisions. It is to be seen how the feature would work as the televisions currently do 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 Amazon’s Fire Stick remote works.