World’s cheapest phone Ringing bells Freedom 251 will resume its sales from today.
In the beginning, the company announced to start the online sales from yesterday morning 6am. But unexpectedly, the website has crashed and most of the buyers, could not place their order.
Speculating that, the entire process is a gambling, the angry youth took to twitter and other social networking sites and expressed their anger. A few of them even dialed to the phone numbers mentioned on the website, but were found to be dead. This went further viral, stating that Apple’s iPhone was dressed well and being kept for online sale in the same of Freedom 251. A few of them said that, it is just a marketing stunt and nothing else.
But slashing all such rumors and speculations at once, Freedom 251 phone sales have launched this morning.
Regarding the same, a statement released from the company reads, “Dear friends, we are very grateful for your enormous response and your kind patronage and would submit that as of now we received approx. Six Lacs hits per second as a result of your kind overwhelming response, servers are overloaded.”
“We humbly submit that we are therefore taking a pause and upgrading the service and will revert within or before 24 hours," it added.
Possibility of selling Freedom 251 at low cost
Explaining the possibility of selling the phone at such a low cost, Ringing Bells' president Ashok Chaddha said, the manufacturing cost of the phone is about Rs 2,500, which will be recovered through a series of measures like economies of scale, innovative marketing, reduction in duties and creating an e-commerce marketplace.
"By going for Made in India components, we can save on the 13.8 percent duty. Also, we will be selling online first and thus save the costs incurred on large distribution network," he said.
Denying the speculations that Freedom 251 is being subsidised by the government, Chaddha said, “The phone will be manufactured in Noida and Uttaranchal. The two plants will be set up for Rs 250 crore each with a capacity of 5 lakh phones. The money will come in the form of debt and equity (1.5:1).
The equity is being met by the promoter family of the company that is "engaged in agri-commodities business" in Uttar Pradesh, Chaddha added, declining to give further information.
Even after a subsidised sale, the price could not be below Rs 3,500, the industry biggies say, seeking Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to get into the depth of the issue.
“For your kind information, the bill of material value for a product like this when sourced from the cheapest supply chain cost approx USD 40 (Rs 2,700). And this when translated into retail price after addition of applicable duties, taxes and with distribution and retail margins would be at least Rs 4,100 while the product is being sold at Rs 251,” ICA National President Pankaj Mohindroo said in the letter.
By Phani Ch
