JioPhone Next' to be most affordable smartphone, says Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced 'JioPhone Next', a power-packed affordable smartphone that has been jointly developed by Jio and tech titan Google.

JioPhone Next will be available from September 10, and will be the most affordable smartphone globally, Ambani said while addressing RIL's annual general meeting.

The "extremely affordable" smartphone will have cutting-edge features, including voice assistant and language translation, among others, he said.

He further said Reliance Jio will use Google Cloud for 5G.

Last year, Google had announced an investment of ₹33,737 crore for a 7.7 per cent stake in Reliance Industries' technology venture Jio Platforms. The tech giant had also teamed up on technology initiatives, including the development of affordable smartphones for the price-sensitive, tech-savvy Indian market. 

In addition to this, Ambani also talked about the JioFiber broadband service. He said that Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, JioFiber acquired more than 2 million new premises over the past year. Now, with a cumulative base of 3 million active home and business users, JIOFIBER has become the largest and the fastest growing fixed broadband operator in India," Ambani said.

“Data consumption on JIOFIBER has grown to more than 3.5 times compared to a year ago. Today, JIO's optical-fiber network is physically present outside more than 12 million homes and business premises, with a deep fiber footprint in the top 100 cities,” he added.