Reliance Industries Ltd., on Friday said its retail unit will launch its own-branded 4G LTE smartphones under the brand “LYF,” which will have features to enable users to make phone calls using LTE and WiFi networks, it said.
“LYF phones will reach consumers across the country through one of the widest distribution and retail network for smartphones. The devices will soon be available at multi-brand outlets (MBOs) and modern trade including Reliance Retail stores across India. These strategic initiatives would augment our reach to customer and drive growth,” the company said while announcing its earnings for the July-September quarter.
The announcement comes ahead of the company’s much awaited launch of telecommunications services on fourth-generation communications technology, using long-term evolution networks, that can provide high-speed internet services on smartphones, tablet computers.
Though acquiring spectrum for the services in 2010, Reliance Industries telecommunications’ unit Reliance Jio Infocomm was not able to launch its commercial services because of availability of handsets that can support the technology at affordable prices. Earlier this year, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that he expects such high-technology smartphones to be sold in India at less than Rs4000 a handset during the year.
Reliance Industries also said that the next fiscal that begins April 2016 “is projected to be the first year of commercial operations” for Reliance Jio, it said.
