Jio Phone Confirmed to Be a Single SIM Mobile

Jio Phone launched with much fanfare last week with a lot of focus on its features, but not much is known about the handset’s hardware specifications yet. Now, it is confirmed that the Jio Phone will come with single SIM support. For those unaware, beta trials of the feature phone will start on August 15, while wider public availability will commence in September; Jio Phone bookings for the public release start on August 24.

The Jio Phone is a 4G-only handset and will route calls via VoLTE (Voice over LTE) technology. Notably, Jio offers the only 4G VoLTE network in the country, which means only the company’s SIM cards will work on the phone, leaving out Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, BSNL etc. out in the cold. Of course Jio rival Airtel has confirmed it will launch its VoLTE services shortly, but it’s likely that the Jio Phone will be sim-locked to the one you get from Reliance Jio.

The Jio representative, speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not say whether the company plans to release a Jio Phone variant with dual-SIM support in the future.

As the device is yet to hit the market (for beta trials or otherwise), it is not yet known what kind of hardware it packs. After the unveiling at the Reliance AGM, Qualcomm and Spreadtrum independently announced their chips are used in the first Jio-branded phone.