Reliance Digital has begun the 4G VoLTE compatibility trend for the smartphones in India with its LYF brand. Going with the flow, many other smartphone makers also entered in the 4G VoLTE smartphone segment to sustain in the highly competitive market. The increased market share of the 4G VoLTE competent smartphone helped the Jio 4G service penetration.
Reliance holds an exclusive pan-India 4G license and it works only on the devices that support the 4G VoLTE connectivity. For using the Jio 4G services on non-VoLTE devices, the users will be restricted to making HD voice calls and will have to happy with the data usage only. Fortunately, there are software fixes and also official Jio4GVoice app to make voice calls on 4G smartphone.
While the Jio 4G services are meant for 4G VoLTE smartphones only, Reliance is rumored to launch VoLTE-enabled feature phones in India under its LYF brand. A large chunk of Indian population is stuck to feature phones and using a smartphone is still a lurid step for them.
The feature phone segment is still contributing a major share in the Indian market as it is the first preference for many people living in small towns, rural and even in urban areas. And providing VoLTE compatibility in feature phone could be a great move to tap this wider user base. The unlimited free HD voice calling on Jio network is a talk-of-the-town these days and if such services made available on a feature phone, then the users will get benefited with the Jio services.
According to a report from Gizbot, the upcoming mobiles will be available in the market by the end of this year or in early 2017. Moreover, the affordable VoLTE enabled feature phone from Reliance will offer free calling and 4G services for users in rural areas, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
There is no official confirmation on whether the VoLTE enable feature phones will come under the LYF brand or not. The upcoming mobiles are expected to feature a Spreadtrum 9820 processor. Spreadtrum has previously powered the LYF Flame 7 and Flame 7s smartphones. The company also has designed chipsets for Samsung for its Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016), Galaxy Tab 7.0 and Tizen-based- Samsung Z2 smartphone among the others.