New Delhi: Reliance Jio Infocomm’s move to offer a feature phone virtually for free addresses the nearly 50 crore current users of such phones who sit on the fringes of the data revolution sweeping India. The company on Friday announced the launch of such a phone with voice calls for free and unlimited data at Rs 153 per month.

There is a refundable security deposit of Rs 1,500 which the user can reclaim after three years. So in effect, the feature phone user of today can transition to a data addict with minimal monthly investment and no expenditure on buying a new handset.

This single move by Reliance Jio will likely break tariff barriers in India, one of the world’s largest telecom markets, where even today, only one in three users can afford a smartphone. The outliers, the customers who continue with their 2G phones, comprise two of every three phone users in India and they are unable to access data on their current handsets because of exorbitant costs.