Vodafone Brings World's Cheapest Mobile to India

It was on the eve of the Mobile World Congress 2010 that we first heard of Vodafone's plans to storm in to the ultra low-end mobile phones segment. Back then, they had showcased two handsets, the Vodafone 150 and the Vodafone 250 - both priced below the Rs. 1,000 mark.

Almost three months down the line, a recent The Times of India report states that Vodafone is on the verge of bringing the Vodafone 150 to India. It will retail at an ultra low-price of Rs. 700 - making it by far, the cheapest handset you can buy in India. This is an impressive feat considering there are already multitudes of low-cost phone manufacturers in the country and that a multinational has managed to outsmart them and launch a device that's cheaper than the cheapest low-end handset out there.

Now, if you thought the low-price tag was a perfect excuse to leave out several "important" features, the Vodafone 150 MIGHT just surprise you. The phone offers expected voice and SMS services and packs in quite a few features you wouldn't expect in such a low-priced phone. The 150 supports mobile payment services, has a miniUSB connector, alarm clock, a torch, calculator a currency converter; 2 embedded games; and memory for up to100 entries in phonebook plus SMS storage. Not bad for a sub-1k phone! The battery is rated at 500mAh and offers standby time up to 400hrs and talk time up to 5hrs.

Vodafone had also, back in February, confirmed that it will maximize the availability of the handsets by providing an extensive logistics infrastructure across countries with sizeable and isolated rural populations. With this, Vodafone expects that the phone will reach 60 percent of the population in India. Marten Pieters, MD and CEO, Vodafone Essar, told The Times of India, "The average user in rural India does not spend as much as mobile consumers in Delhi or in Mumbai. Though the majority still make a revenue stream for mobile operators, the idea is to make mobile phones affordable and achievable for everyone."

The Rs. 700 Vodafone 150 will be sold across the country even though the rural areas will be the primary focus.