Ringing Bells begins delivery of Rs251 smartphone

Ringing Bells, the Noida-based company that courted controversy five months back when it announced a smartphone at an astonishingly low price of Rs251, on Monday claimed it has begun delivery of the world's cheapest smartphone in five states including Haryana, West Bengal and Bihar.

"Of the 5,000 units of Freedom 251 phones that we committed to deliver in the first phase, we have started the delivery of 2,240 phones today through distributors and couriers," Ringing Bells director Mohit Goel told PTI. This includes 390 phones in Haryana, 540 phones in West Bengal, 605 phones in Himachal Pradesh, 484 in Bihar and 221 phones in Uttarakhand.

Goel further said the company will initiate on Tuesday the delivery of 2,000 more smartphones. Of this lot, 223 phones will go to consumers in Delhi, 364 phones in Punjab, 108 in J&K, 521 in Maharashtra, 194 in Madhya Pradesh, 225 in Jharkhand and 365 in Rajasthan. "The balance 760 phones were delivered in UP on Monday across five areas including Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, among others," Goel said.

For the Freedom 251 smartphone, buyers will have to pay Rs291, including Rs40 as delivery charge. Once the delivery in UP kicked off on 11 July, Goel claimed that the company would start working on plans for delivery of the next lot of 200,000 smartphones.

"The parts have already arrived at the factory," he said.

In February, the company announced the Freedom 251 phone which saw a rush of over 70 million people jostling to register, but when the prototype was presented to the media it turned out to be produced by another manufacturer with its logo covered.

This led to protests from buyers and consequent inquiries by police and tax officials, forcing the company to stop sale of the product and offer refunds to those who had booked the phone (See: BPO to file fraud case against Ringing Bells).

The Freedom 251 prototype touts a quad-core processor, a 4-inch screen and front and back cameras. On Sunday, the company unveiled new more-expensive smartphone models as well as an LED TV priced at Rs9,990.