Ringing Bells, a Noida based company in India, has offered what it claims to be the world's cheapest smart phone for less than £3 a handset. The phone, Freedom 251, will run on Android and features 3G, a four-inch display, 8GB of internal storage and a camera on the front and back, has been on sale for Rs 251 (£2.55). It was available for booking for two days. The company said deliveries would start in June.
The company behind it, Ringing Bells, has backed the product with a national advertising campaign. The phone, which will be made domestically in response to the prime minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” manufacturing push, will be pre-loaded with apps promoting government programmes.
Ringing Bells said that the handset would initially cost about Rs 2,000 to manufacture and it hoped that economies of scale will help it make a profit. It is not being subsidised by the state. India has more than a billion mobile phone subscribers, making it the world’s second-largest market after China, but many own basic handsets without internet access, particularly in the countryside.
The company said it aimed to “empower citizens, even in the remotest rural and semi-urban centres of India, with the latest in digital technology at incredible affordable prices.”
Critics have suggested that its business case does not add up. The Indian Cellular Association wrote to the telecoms minister arguing that it was not possible to sell a 3G phone below Rs 2,700, while an MP with the ruling party called it a scam.
