On Wednesday, Indian Telecom company Ringing Bells launched its new smartphone - Freedom 251 - which is touted as the world's cheapest phone with a price of just Rs 251.
Other than its iPhone-like similarities nothing seems to be well with the ridiculously inexpensive smartphone.
The phone can be booked online through a dedicated website freedom251.com by Ringing Bells between 6 am and 8 pm from February 18 to February 21. Upon clicking the 'Buy Now' option on the homepage, the site asks users to fill in the quantity and give out the shipping address and other related details. The company is charging Rs 40 per unit for shipping the device taking the total cost to Rs 291.
However, once the user fills in the details and hits 'Pay Now', the site redirects the user to the same buy now page with blank columns for shipping address or a completely blank page.
Although the company says that the phone's delivery will be completed four months later - by June 30, 2016 - the pre-booking, in this case, is still inaccessible to users.
Prior to the launch of the Rs 251 smartphone, the mobile industry body ICA expressed serious concerns over the launch of the smartphone and have written to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to get into depth of the issue, saying the rate could not be below Rs 3,500 even after a subsidised sale.
The phone comes with a 4-inch WVGA (480x800) IPS display, 3.2 megapixel auto-focus rear camera, 0.3 megapixel front camera, 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB of internal storage with SD card support, 1450 mAh battery, and Android 5.1 Lollipop OS.
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