Launched two years ago, Jio aims to empower every Indian with the power of data so that they could do magical things. Today, Jio stands with a subscriber base of over 215 Million users, creating a world record of sorts.
While it was evident that most of the 4G smartphone users were adopting Jio and enjoying the world-class services at the lowest price anywhere in the world, a large majority of the feature phone users that constitute two-third of the Indian mobile user base got left out.
Mr. Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, said, “During this movement of connecting the unconnected, many partners came forward to strengthen the cause. One such partner who has really stood by us from the beginning is Facebook and its ecosystem. The result of one such partnership is out for the world to see today. We will be providing WhatsApp, the most used chat application in the world, on all JioPhones starting today. Jio wants to thank the Facebook and WhatsApp team for making this happen.”
Even though the services became affordable, this segment of 500 Mn feature phone users could not afford even an entry level 4G smartphone. This gave birth to the JioPhone, which was launched by Reliance Retail Ltd in August 2017.
“Millions of people across India can now use WhatsApp private messaging on the best-in-class JioPhone across India,” said Mr. Chris Daniels, Vice President, WhatsApp. “By designing this new app for KaiOS, we hope to expand the ability for people to communicate with anyone in India and around the world by offering the best messaging experience possible to JioPhone users.”
Reliance Retail has created a special helpline number ‘1991’ to answer queries on the JioPhone.