Reliance is India’s original disruptor: Suhel Seth on launch of ‘JioBharat’ phone

Suhel Seth, Chairman, CII Branding and Marketing Committee and Managing Partner Counselage India

Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd, on July 3 announced the launch of the internet-enabled 'JioBharat' phones, at a starting price of Rs 999.

Chairman, CII Branding and Marketing Committee and Managing Partner Counselage India, Suhel Seth said that over the years, in everything Reliance has done, there has been a commitment to every Indian irrespective of caste, colour, creed or income.

"The JioBharat phone is about digital democracy and empowerment at its best. It's about making everything everyone able to do what they want through their phones. In many ways, just like when Mukesh Ambani launched Jio in 2016, this launch is a similar day in the history of Indian telecom and the digitisation history of India." he added.

According to Seth, Reliance has created uniform access across platforms. "They are platform-agnostic and wholly consumer-centric," he said. "... they are empowering every Indian to make the choices they couldn't make either because of limitations of money or access. In one swoop, both have been marginalised. Today you have affordable access of the highest kind."

The phone has been launched with the "2G-mukt Bharat vision", and is aimed at providing the "existing 250 million feature phone users" in the country with internet-enabled phones, Jio said.

In many ways, the "2G-mukt Bharat" dream of Mukesh Ambani has arrived as this phone aims to hasten the demise of the 2G phone era.

"When Jio was launched in 2016, the market had to do price correction and behaviour correction. The arrogance of the erstwhile telecom operators disappeared overnight because they were faced with a challenge both in terms of price and performance by Jio. Today is another such day when price and performance will be far superior to what's available right now," Seth adds.

This is the "lowest entry price for an internet-enabled phone", Jio said in a release, adding that those buying the handset will be eligible for "30 percent cheaper monthly plan and 7 times more data compared to feature phone offerings of other operators".

Jio's launch tailwinds the PM's vision of a digital India.

"... in many ways, they are creating an egalitarian world in India with affordable prices," Seth says.

This launch sets the benchmark for more products and services for the other sectors of society where affordability is a factor, said Seth, adding in every category that Reliance operates, it will follow the same principles.

"Expect more of this in Jio, in FMCG, and others. Reliance is India's original disruptor... it's a disruption with added value. They not only disrupt the market, they create it." Seth said.

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