Reliance To Offer Handsets At Rs 777

[coolrajiv 1]

May 02, 2007

Sahara Samay

Embarking on the low-cost handset epoch, Indian telephony major Reliance Communications announced the launch of its cheapest ever handset at just Rs. 777 a set, with no fine-print and on hidden costs.

However, this is not the launch of the Classic range, but re-pricing of the existing sets already selling.

Aiming at the rural market and also picking up the low-end subscribers in urban areas, S.P. Shukla, president, Personal Business, Reliance Communications said through a countrywide videoconference that this would truly revolutionise the Indian wireless telephony sector.

"Never before and never again," Shukla said would such an unbelievably priced handset be made available. "This is for the moment the lowest price anyone can afford, even Reliance," Shukla said answering a query in Delhi.

The videoconference had wired in scribes from Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow, Bhopal and Delhi, while the Mumbai press was told this earlier in a press conference this afternoon.

Expectedly, Shukla would not budge on issues of investment levels, but said that there would be three in a range of Classic brand handset, the lowest of which would be priced at Rs. 777, and the highest at Rs. 888.

Shukla said that subscribers are free to choose the tariff plan they wanted and accordingly, the initial price offer would fetch benefits as a catch-fast measure by reliance. The benefits could be in terms of free minutes or length of validity, he added.

"Reliance has been the first with its new business initiatives in most things related to mobile telephony, whether it be the One India plan, Capital City offer, lowest tariff rates and so forth, and competitors have copied our innovations, Shukla said.

"So the obvious question was: where could we score higher, and taking cues from journalist friends, who know the market pulse best, we felt that we ought to give a handset at a price which makes people decide on the spot to go for it," he explained.

The additional cost a subscriber would need to make was the SIM card, which could be as low as just Rs. 99, with a talk time of Rs. 100, Sajiv Kanwar, CEO, Delhi and Haryana explained to scribes in Delhi.

Asked what the intriguing "never before and never after" price meant, and whether Reliance, as usual, would soon raise the price, Shukla said: "I do not make predictions, all I can say is that if you are planning to buy my set, buy it fast."

Classic is a brand name, he told and company sources said that of the 16 in the Classic range, some were manufactured in China, some in Taiwan and others elsewhere.

Reliance officials fought the 'reliability factor' of Chinese goods, saying that even the best brand name in the world is manufactured in China. "The reliability of these sets come with the reliability of Reliance as a brand, I can assure you," Kanwar told media persons here.

Asked why Reliance does not get into the manufacturing of handsets, Kanwar said that it did not make business sense, because then the company would have to manufacture for the entire available space in the Indian market to get the economies of scale to bring down prices further than this.

[copperco2 24]

this is just something that is been done before by reliance but not advertised on such a scale. I had seen some classic handsets priced at rs.750 with a postpaid connection at mumbai central. Seems now this scheme only available previously at mumbai central will be available across the world in India.

[coolrajiv 1]

this is just something that is been done before by reliance but not advertised on such a scale. I had seen some classic handsets priced at rs.750 with a postpaid connection at mumbai central. Seems now this scheme only available previously at mumbai central will be available across the world in India.

At Rs 777 its a steal reliance is going to capture the rural market with this amazing offer

[KumaarShah 143]

Maybe the Classic handsets are prone to faults every now and then and thats why they are selling at such low prices. The RCL logic is very simple - cheap quality - cheaper prices.

Any Classic user here can share his/her experience with us on the quality etc?

Thanks

[prakashkadam 1]

Maybe the Classic handsets are prone to faults every now and then and thats why they are selling at such low prices. The RCL logic is very simple - cheap quality - cheaper prices.

Any Classic user here can share his/her experience with us on the quality etc?

Thanks

Yeah, this is indian mentality saying cheaper prices can not deliver good quality. Look at the chinese in many products they are better than indian pricey products.

World is not same, it is always changing, as do the notions we believe in.

regards

-prakash

[coolrajiv 1]

Maybe the Classic handsets are prone to faults every now and then and thats why they are selling at such low prices. The RCL logic is very simple - cheap quality - cheaper prices.

Any Classic user here can share his/her experience with us on the quality etc?

Thanks

Yeah, this is indian mentality saying cheaper prices can not deliver good quality. Look at the chinese in many products they are better than indian pricey products.

World is not same, it is always changing, as do the notions we believe in.

regards

-prakash

Agree with you if chinese products were crap than China would not have been exporting electronic products

all over the world ....( US imports products from China in Billions ) people believe ohh chinese product hain tab toh quality ki vaat lag gayee but its not like that always ........ just to prove it anybody who is using Classic mobile should post his experience here to substantiate my claim...... & in any case this handset will get lots of buyer in rural market only ...... This handset has been launched by Reliance to add to its subscriber base and this handset will be in demand mainly in rural market as well as for those who want just a mobile to make calls and sms....

[raccoon 53]

I don't know about the quality of the Classic handsets ...wrt to the features, the price seems good, but what about the tariff plans? Most if not all people in this catageory will go for pre-paid where RIM is still charging Rs. 1.79 per min (RIM - other mobile) and Re. 1 (RIM - RIM) on their base plan ...when other operators are charging much less than half of that ...and also offer better incentive/bonuses. Rental (processing free, etc) is also high ...Airtel for eg. charges only Rs. 100/- on Rs. 350 voucher. They have better SMS plans and way better texting capability and over better facilities with facilities like Call Waiting, Voice Mail, Balance after every call, etc, etc.

Reliance is obviously looking to compensate (...rather overcompensate) for handset costs thru tariffs! It would be cheaper in the long run to buy a better and slightly more expensive GSM handset and go for a cheaper plan with a GSM operator.

Edited May 3, 2007 by raccoon

[Honest 836]

My dear friends there is no doubt that mobiles made in China can be of good quality. In the coming days we will use these mobiles like "Use & Throw" as the prices of these handsets come down to even less than Rs.500/-.

These kinds of low end mobiles definetely be useful for small business groups also. As small business group can provide these handsets to their staff members to be in touch with each of them.

Regards.

[ctrl_alt_del 0]

As far as the quality of Classic handsets by ZTE are concerned. here is what I wrote yesterday.

The Classic handset made by ZTE that I have been using was dogged with a few problems.

The first and foremost was the signal strength. Calls would drop randomly. Moving an inch in some areas will result in a loss of signal completely. There is no concept of weak signal. Its either in full strength or not at all. Even if the signal is full, the calls can drop at any given moment.

Battery backup os very very poor to say the least. Once one bar drops, the others follow suite very rapidly. So while you may be happy that you still have three bars left for the battery but they wont even last you 10 mins of talktime. Mind you, this is teh condition in the B & W set with no extra features to boast of. So I doubt if the latest ones with more features on board will be able to sustain it with such a measely battery backup. And yes, I checked the handsets and they have the same battery that my cell has...or had, as I threw away that one recently. Good riddance. smile.gif

And finally the HUGELY annoying problem of the handset heating up. And by heating up, I mean its equivalent to the X Box 360 kind of heating up, where you can literally cook something on it. Many times my ears have been heated to the point of becoming ear tandoor of some kind. Ear Babecue anyone?

Thats my opinion about Classic handsets made by ZTE. Others are free to differ.

[Sadikk 301]

Only Classics 202 is for 777.

LOL i have sold hundreds of these handsets in 500 bucks before. (BULK ONLY)

So pity they are clearing their stock now, no one is interested in these lame handsets anymore.

[copperco2 24]

this will be the start of things to come like a FREE handset with a postpaid plan with a lock in period. like DAPO.

[indiacha 0]

this will be the start of things to come like a FREE handset with a postpaid plan with a lock in period. like DAPO.

i really need a N95 like phone to use in reliance...... :Sorprendido:

Only Classics 202 is for 777.

LOL i have sold hundreds of these handsets in 500 bucks before. (BULK ONLY)

So pity they are clearing their stock now, no one is interested in these lame handsets anymore.

not really , rikshaw pullers and drivers will take all this classic sets away......

[@ksh@T 20]

well i have one classic which i had purchased for my Auto Driver sonce 4 months working fine...yeah it is slow....but who cares i dunno wanna use it!..so what!

[KumaarShah 143]

Someone in RCL told me today that LG has stopped their arrangement with RCL and they will no longer sell any LG models now. Thats a pity, there was only one good supplier of mobiles and that also has gone now. As it is Nokia has withdrawn from CDMA and now LG also have severed their ties with RCL now. So we are left only with 3rd rate Classic models. And yes that person also told me that Classic phones are not of a good quality. Thirdly he also told me that Classic has about 30 to 35 models in all and of them, only 10 to 12 have been released so far by RCL and the rest will come out in the very near future.

So now onwards RCL will become UNRELIANCE even in their handsets as they are already UNRELIANCE in their tariffs and offers so far.