Reliance Jio LYF Smartphone

NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio is planning to roll out smartphones under its "LYF" brand, along with bundled 50 GB of free 4G data, 5,000 minutes of free talk time on own 4G network, and 5,000 free SMS, by the first week of February in thirteen cities, RTN Asia reported Monday. 

At Rs 100 per GB and Rs 0.50 per minute and SMS, these freebies are worth Rs 10,000 (Rs 5000+2,500+2,500), the publication said, citing various retailing sources. 

Five metros Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore-will be a part of the first phase launch, the report said, adding that Baroda, Kochi, Hyderabad, Pune, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Indore and Patna will also get 4G devices and services by the same time. 

In December 2015, Reliance Jio had launched its 4G services, albeit, just for its group employees, and their families. The telco, since then, substantially optimized its network, and is currently testing service offerings across the breadth of the country. 

Reliance JioMoney Wallet app first impressions: Good potential, needs design overhaul

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Jio Infocomm has quietly launched its JioMoney digital wallet app for Android and iOS. The app aims to make it easier to handle all your utility bill payments, mobile and DTH recharge and insurance premium payments. JioMoney Wallet also supports payments at physical merchant shops, send and receive money from family and friends, and pay on online services such as Bookmyshow, Groupon and more.

Reliance Industries was one of the 10 companies that received a license from RBI in August 2015 to setup a payments bank. JioMoney Wallet joins the already saturated market of digital wallets, which includes the likes of Freecharge, Oxigen, Paytm and Mobikwik among others. Using the JioMoney wallet, users can not only pay at Reliance Digital and Reliance Fresh, but also at offline stores. The company is also looking forward to get more merchants onboard for cashless payments, something that Paytm is also been doing. You can use Paytm wallet to pay at petrol pumps, food courts in shopping malls and more. We downloaded the app on our Android smartphone and here are our first impressions.

User InterfaceTo be honest, the interface of JioMoney Wallet looks pretty boring and old fashioned. Right from the welcome screen with the Comic Sans font to the in-app menus, the app interface falls flat in front of competitor digital wallets that have a more colorful, lively and material design interface.

You’ll need to register using your mobile number, full name and date of birth. You’ll also be asked for a login password and a four-digit m-pin, which is more like a two-step authentication. Once the signup is complete, you will be greeted with a homescreen that has your name, your account balance and six icons for Jio Payments, Bill Pay/Recharge, Pay at shop, send/request money, coupons and loyalty cards.

On the top left corner, there is a hamburger menu under which you have shortcuts for home, manage account and inbox. On the top right corner, there is the JioMoney icon where you have shortcuts for account settings, manage profile, logout and other stuff like app tour, customer care and FAQs.

Loading MoneyOn the homescreen, just below the balance, there is a button to load money. Tapping in that button the next screen gives you an option to enter the amount that you need to load the wallet with. You can use your credit or debit card to load balance, with maximum limit of Rs 10,000 and number of transactions restricted to 100 in a period of 30 days.

Reliance Jio has partnered with a few banks for net banking. With HDFC Bank, you can do a maximum of Rs 5,000 per transaction, ICICI Bank allows for transfer amount up to Rs 5,000 per day, whereas you can load up to Rs 10,000 from other banks. We loaded some money using a Citibank credit card and the process was pretty smooth. However, there is no tie-up with SBI Bank at the moment.

Bill Payments
JioMoney wallet allows you to make payments to a variety of services. On the homescreen, tap on the Recharge/Bill Pay option where you will find a list of services you can pay to. This includes Jio Payments (it’s not activated yet), Prepaid mobile and DTH which includes all telecom and DTH operators including Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Docomo, Tata Sky, Sun TV, Dish TV, Videocon DTH and more. You can also make postpaid bill payments to Airtel, Aircel, BSNL, Idea, Vodafone and Tata Docomo.

Options for landline bill payments, gas and insurance companies such as Bharti Axa Life, ICICI Prudential, PNB Metlife, Tata AIG and IndiaFirst Life. However, LIC of India, which is a major insurance providers is missing from the list. That’s not all; you can also make payments to major charity trusts and subscription based services such as Readers Digest and India Today. We made a prepaid mobile refill on Vodafone number — the transaction was smooth and we got the money credited within five minutes.

Pay at Shop and send / receive moneyYou can also pay to merchants who have tied up with Reliance Jio. Tapping on the icon, you can either pay the merchant by entering their mobile number and amount or using a QR code. There is also an option to send / receive money within your family and friends. You can send it directly to their bank account by adding their full name, IFSC code and account number, or send to JioMoney users simply by entering their registered phone number.

CouponsReliance Jio is offering a range of deals and discounts on food, travel, accessories, books and magazine and apparels. Under food, you can get up to 10 percent off when you order from FoodPanda (on minimum purchase of Rs 275), up to 15 percent off on Monginis and up to 15 percent off on total bill at Noodle Play.

Travel includes flat 20 percent off on OYO Rooms, flat 10 percent off on Zoomcar and more. You can also buy accessories from Chumbak, Giftsmate, Beltkart or Postergully and get up to 25 percent off. There is also 20 percent discount at My Dentist, Style and Scissors and other health-related outlets. Last option is loyalty card option where you can add your Reliance One card and earn points as you spend using the JioMoney wallet.

In December last year, Reliance offered the Jio 4G SIM cards for its employees for testing purpose. Earlier this week, company has also opened referral system where Reliance employees can refer their friends to join the network and test it. Users also get unlimited 4G downloads and unlimited phone calls for three months. However, there is one major caveat; users will have to buy a LYF-branded smartphone as there is no option to get a standalone SIM.

Overall, JioMoney Wallet seems to have good potential, but they need to revamp the interface. With Reliance Jio 4G commercial launch around the corner, it could be a game changer if the company is able to pull it off. But then again, with RBI closing in to launch UPI (Unified Payments Interface) that will integrate all digital wallets into one, it will be interesting to see if it could affect JioMoney and other digital wallets.

Reliance Jio has also launched a host of other apps such as JioPlay, JioMags, JioOnDemand, JioDrive and JioSecurity among others.