Jio's New Plans, Jio Phone Rival by BSNL, WhatsApp Live Location, Nokia 7, and More News This Week
Welcome back to our weekly roundup of all the tech news that you can use. In a move that was announced a little while ago, Reliance Jio has finally announced new plans, reducing the validity of some popular packs and raising the rates on other plans. It's been something that a lot of people have expected for a while now, and the announcement from Reliance Jio came with Diwali this year. The big change is that the Rs. 399 Jio pack benefits will now be priced at Rs. 459. This includes the free calls and SMS of course, and apart from that, you get 1GB of data per day for 84 days. And of course, you get access to Reliance Jio's apps such as Jio Cinema and Jio Music.
Rs. 399 recharge will still give you the same data access as before, but its validity has gone down from 84 days to 70 days, so the pricing is in line with the new Rs. 459 plan. Reliance Jio has also reduced the validity of the Rs. 509 recharge pack, which gives you 2GB data daily - earlier, the plan had 56 days validity, and now it has 49 days validity.
Jio's new prepaid plans now start from Rs. 52 for one week's validity and a total of 1.05GB data capped to 150MB a day, and go up to Rs. 4,999 which gets you 360 days validity, and 350GB data, with no daily cap. There's also a Rs. 19 pack that gives you 150MB data for a day. Postpaid plans start from Rs. 309 per month, with a security deposit of Rs. 400, offering 1GB data daily and go up to Rs. 999 per month with a Rs. 1,150 deposit, offering 60GB data with no daily limits.
This week also saw the launch of BSNL and Micromax's answer to the Jio Phone, the Micromax Bharat-1. Priced at Rs. 2,200, the basic handset supports 4G VoLTE for calls, and BSNL also has a number of deals for cheap calls, bringing the effective cost of ownership even lower than the Jio Phone, over a three-year period. The BSNL phone is not the only low-cost mobile vying to become "Bharat ka smartphone" though - the competition also includes the recently unveiled Karbonn A40 Indian Android smartphone launched in partnership with Airtel, priced at Rs. 3,499, but with an "effective price" of Rs. 1,399.
The BSNL Micromax Bharat 1 phone comes with a number of apps preinstalled, including a custom build of Opera Mini, and YouTube. Using the Web, or watching videos is serviceable and while the camera quality is disappointing, the phone is definitely usable. For the right audience, the phone could well be a great purchase. The Jio Phone has some unique features such as the HelloJio voice assistant, an App Store, and the phone to TV media cable. But the Bharat 1 has most of the other features of the Jio Phone, and doesn't require you to stick to a network or a plan, which could tip the scales in its favour.
Jio's new prepaid plans now start from Rs. 52 for one week's validity and a total of 1.05GB data capped to 150MB a day, and go up to Rs. 4,999 which gets you 360 days validity, and 350GB data, with no daily cap. There's also a Rs. 19 pack that gives you 150MB data for a day. Postpaid plans start from Rs. 309 per month, with a security deposit of Rs. 400, offering 1GB data daily and go up to Rs. 999 per month with a Rs. 1,150 deposit, offering 60GB data with no daily limits.
This week also saw the launch of BSNL and Micromax's answer to the Jio Phone, the Micromax Bharat-1. Priced at Rs. 2,200, the basic handset supports 4G VoLTE for calls, and BSNL also has a number of deals for cheap calls, bringing the effective cost of ownership even lower than the Jio Phone, over a three-year period. The BSNL phone is not the only low-cost mobile vying to become "Bharat ka smartphone" though - the competition also includes the recently unveiled Karbonn A40 Indian Android smartphone launched in partnership with Airtel, priced at Rs. 3,499, but with an "effective price" of Rs. 1,399.
The BSNL Micromax Bharat 1 phone comes with a number of apps preinstalled, including a custom build of Opera Mini, and YouTube. Using the Web, or watching videos is serviceable and while the camera quality is disappointing, the phone is definitely usable. For the right audience, the phone could well be a great purchase. The Jio Phone has some unique features such as the HelloJio voice assistant, an App Store, and the phone to TV media cable. But the Bharat 1 has most of the other features of the Jio Phone, and doesn't require you to stick to a network or a plan, which could tip the scales in its favour.
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