Reliance Jio to produce 10 crore low-cost Android phones by December

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) telecom unit-Reliance Jio is looking to roll out 10 crore (100 million) low-cost smartphones by December 2020.

The telco is planning to contract out the manufacturing of such mobile devices that will be built on Google's Android platform, the Business Standard reported.

The phones, bundled with data packs, are likely to be launched by December this year or early next year. RIL, which is India's most highly-valued company, had  in July had announed Google's $4.5 billion investment in Jio.

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Reliance chief Mukesh Ambani had also said that Google would build an Android operating system (OS) to power a low-cost "4G or even 5G" smartphone that RIL would design.

Reliance has sold nearly 33% of its digital arm, Jio Platforms, to raise Rs 1.52 lakh crore ($20.22 billion) and has won the backing of global financial and tech investors including, Facebook Inc, Intel, and Qualcomm.

Facebook is the largest investor among all 13 strategic investors in Jio platforms, holding a 9.9 per cent stake worth Rs 43,574 crore.

Private equity investor KKR has picked up a 2.32 per cent stake for Rs 11,367 crore in Jio platforms whose other investors are Google, Intel, Qualcomm, Vista Equity Partners, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Mubadala.

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