Reliance Jio working with all device OEMs, Qualcomm for ‘value proposition’ on 5G phones: Sunil Dutt - ET Telecom (2024)

• Industry
• 3 min read

NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio works with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including smartphone brands, and the US-based Qualcomm, to offer value proposition on fifth-generation or 5G-enabled smartphones, said a senior executive of the telecom company.

“For all smartphones, we are working very closely with all the partner brands and device manufacturers, whether they are innovating and manufacturing 5G smartphones on a standalone network. We work with Qualcomm to bring down prices and make 5G smartphones affordable for customers,” Sunil Dutt, President – Devices, at Reliance Jio, told ETTelecom recently.

Dutt said Jio is working “very closely” with all the device OEMs to get the “best value proposition for our customers”.

Mukesh Ambani’s Jio leads the wireless market with a subscriber base of 463.78 million, followed by Bharti Airtel (383.48 million), and Vodafone Idea (212.45 million), according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) data for August.

The Mumbai-based telco has 148 million 5G users that contribute nearly 34% to its wireless data traffic.

Notably, Xiaomi this week launched its sub-Rs 10,000 smartphone, the Redmi A4 5G, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chipset, with support for Jio’s 5G SA network. The companies have teamed up to migrate millions of 4G feature phone and budget smartphone users to the fifth-generation networks.

Market research agency Techarc previously forecasted that the sub-$99 (or ~Rs 8,000) smartphones powered by chipsets by the likes of Unisoc and Qualcomm could help 156 million feature phone users migrate to 5G by 2030 in India.

The move is further expected to increase the 5G contribution in the sub-$100 price segment and further add to the “complete democratisation of 5G in smartphones”, Counterpoint Research has said separately, noting that the key to achieving 5G democratisation is to enter lower price bands.

As per Counterpoint, 5G smartphones achieved their highest-ever share of 81% in overall shipments in the July-September 2024 quarter. In the Rs 10,001-Rs 15,000 segment, 5G penetration reached 93%, with brands focusing on introducing 5G models in the budget segment, the market tracker has said.

Telco sells 135 mn units of JioPhone

Dutt said Jio is enabling the migration of 2G users to 4G with its affordable ‘JioBharat’ feature phone line-up with economical mobile packs.

“We are giving them information, entertainment, digital payments, and messenger chats. These are very affordable phones with affordable monthly plans, priced at Rs 123 a month, as well as, phones which start from Rs 999 onwards,” he said.

Jio has sold 135 million units of its ‘JioPhone’ devices, the executive revealed. "Our phones are doing extremely well. JioPhone, we have sold around 135 million of those phones. And again, JioBharat has taken off very successfully in the market,” Dutt said.

Jio is banking on ‘JioBharat’ to migrate India’s 250 million 2G users, particularly in the rural regions, to fourth-generation Internet-enabled phones.

Data from CyberMedia Research (CMR) showed that JioBharat’s shipment share in the 4G feature phone segment stood at 35% in 2023.

Handset OEMs need to do more to make 4G feature phones more affordable for the masses, as per the executive.

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