After the order was given to withdraw its Jio ‘Summer Surprise’ offer, telecom giant Reliance Jio announced that it would soon offer new plans and offers to customers. While no real details are known at this time, Reliance Jio likely figured out how the previous offering violated TRAI’s regulatory framework and figured out a way to avoid the same issue. Until now, there was only a teaser on Jio’s website.
Details of the ‘Summer Surprise’ offer and Jio Prime membership have been removed from the website. The company had stated that anyone who had already signed up for the Jio Summer Surprise offer would still receive the benefits, and it would take some time to phase out fully. New customers can no longer buy the Rs. 99 Jio Prime membership or minimum top-up of Rs. 303 through the official website or MyJio app. However, the Jio Prime membership will remain open until April 15, as previously announced by Reliance Jio, and there are still ways to sign up for the full range of benefits.
Jio customers who are not taking advantage of the Summer Surprise offer can look forward to the new plans when they are announced. Reliance Jio may want to put even more pressure on competitors who have lowered their rates and given away 4G data, either heavily discounted or free.
Let’s take a look at other top stories of the day.
How to get a Jio Summer Surprise to offer even now.
Flipkart raises $1.4 billion, buys eBay.Flipkart’s massive $1.4 billion (approximately Rs. 9,030 crores) fundraising round is officially the largest amount raised by an Indian startup. The company is now valued at $11.6 billion. Tencent, eBay, and Microsoft are the main new investors. Part of the deal involves Flipkart acquiring eBay.in’s business, and eBay is acquiring shares in Flipkart. The partners have announced that eBay. It will remain an independent website. Flipkart also announced that it would use Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, analytics, and AI technology to drive customer engagement.
There is growing speculation that Flipkart will soon merge with Snapdeal to tackle Amazon’s global power, which is also expected to pump more money into its Indian operations.
In related news, Flipkart has indicated that it will take another step in the hyper-local grocery market. This will be Flipkart’s second attempt at cracking the grocery market, following its spin-off app Close, which came months after launching in October 2015. The company isn’t ruling out more mergers and acquisitions to help it break into what it sees as a high-quality space.
BSNL offers 300 GB of data per month at Rs. 249BSNL jumps into the telecom Warby, offeringg 300GB of data at a discounted rate of Rs. 249 per month for six months. The offer is only open to new subscribers, who will automatically migrate to a higher-priced plan after that time. The speed is relatively slow at 2 Mbps for up to 10 GB per day, then 1 Mbps. Unused data within the daily limit will be carried over to the next day.
Subscribers to this plan can also make free calls to any network in India from 9 pm to 7 am and all day Sunday. The goal is valid in all BSNL circles except Jammu & Kashmir and Andaman & Nicobar. The minimum subscription period is one month, and a deposit of Rs. 249 to pay.
After a massive rebranding, multiple executive departures, layoffs, and extraordinary efforts to cut costs, Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have written a letter to all employees addressing rumors that Flipkart or another third party is buying it. Snapdeal founders’ letter to employees indicates an exit is imminent. Out soon. The founders acknowledge that Snapdeal’s investors are “steering discussions on the way forward.”
The core of the letter is that the well-being of all employees is paramount to the founding team, and they should not fear what is to come. However, if Flipkart merges with Snapdeal, there will likely be layoffs.
The letter states that employees will receive pay raises and promotions within the next two weeks and that the general standard for raises will be higher than last year because the company has done well.
Vivo, Micromax, and Coolpad launch new models in India Vivo, the title sponsor of this year’s IPL cricket tournament, has launched an IPL Special Edition version of its Vivo V5 Plus smartphone. This device is matte black and has the IPL logo on the back, but it is the same as the Vivo V5 Plus. It is priced at Rs. 25,990 and will be available through offline stores and Flipkart.
The Vivo V5 Plus is a selfie-focused smartphone launched in January. It has dual front cameras to help users take selfies with a depth of field effects. It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC and has 4 GB of RAM. Gadgets 360 has rated this phone and placed it 7/10.
Micromax’s new launch is called the Bharat 2, and it is extremely affordable, with a price tag of just Rs. 3,499. It has a 4-inch 480×800 pixel screen, a 1.3GHz Spreadtrum SC9832 processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. There is also a 2-megapixel rear camera and a 1300mAh battery. This phone supports 4G with VoLTE and runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Coolpad has made the more affordable variant of the Coolpad Cool 1 Dual (Review) available online after its offline-exclusive launch last December. This variant has 3 GB of RAM and costs Rs. 10,999, while the more expensive variant has 4 GB of RAM but is identical. Interestingly, the latter has also fallen in price from Rs. 13,999 to Rs. 12,999. Both options give you 32 GB of storage, a 5.5-inch full-HD display, a large 4000 mAh battery, Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, and dual cameras on the back.
Moto E4 Specs Reportedly Leak After launching the new premium Moto Z series and mainstream Moto G5 siblings, it only makes sense that Lenovo would turn its attention to the entry-level Moto E series. Leaks indicate that the alleged upcoming Moto E4 and Moto E4 Plus will run Android 7.0 Nougat, have 16GB of storage, and support LTE. The two variants could also have 2800mAh and 5000mAh batteries, respectively, but differences beyond that, such as screen size, are not yet known.
The leaks are thanks to tipster Roland Quandt, who researched American FCC lists and discovered two Motorola identifiers.
Reliance Communications (RCom) has reportedly laid off about 380 employees whose performance was deemed poor after the company’s latest appraisal cycle, and the fate of 260 more has yet to be decided, PTI said. RCom is reportedly asking 380 employees to leave due to poor performance. Company spokespersons have not released a statement to PTI upon request. Reliance Communications reported its first-ever consolidated net loss in the last quarter, following its acquisition of Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) in 2016.
Pokemon Go hopes to keep users interested with a new co-op multiplayer mode. Pokemon Go was one of the biggest fads of 2016, but its popularity has waned considerably since its explosive launch. Developer Niantic has announced that it will be adding a new cooperative social gameplay mode shortly. The company also stated that the game still has 65 million monthly active users.
