Freedom 251 Smartphone: Ringing Bells Claims Pre-order For 30,000 Units On Day 1

Ringing Bells Freedom 251 smartphone has set the mobile phone industry on fire with its eyeball grabbing price of just Rs 251. However, at the same time, people as well as mobile phone industry are skeptical how a new entrant into the market could sell a smartphone which looks like an imitation of iPhone at such a low price? Despite this, people got glued to their laptops and handsets as the clock struck 6:00 in the morning to pre-order this Rs 251 smartphone, which aims to bridge the digital divide in the country.

We were expecting that they would sell lakhs if not more units of this ‘cheaper than the cheapest smartphone, but boy we were wrong. The company managed to sell off only 30,000 units on day one. Mohit Goel, director of Ringing Bells, confirmed these numbers to The Economic Times. He said, “30,000 orders were booked on the day one of the online booking.”

The expectedly lower sale numbers could be attributed to the website crash; the company’s servers couldn’t survive 6 lakh hits per second. Ringing Bells, then, flashed a message on the website which read, “Dear friends, we are very grateful for your enormous response and your kind patronage and would submit that as of now we receive approx 6 lakh hits per second, as a result of which due to your kind overwhelming response servers are overloaded,” Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd. flashed a message on www.freedom251.com. We humbly submit that we are, therefore, taking a pause and upgrading the service and will revert within or before 24 hours.”

Read More: Here’s Why Booking Freedom 251 Smartphone Needs A Consideration

The initial sales numbers of the device are way lower than Ringing Bells’ senior management’s expectations. In an interview to NDTV Gadgets 360, Mohit Goel along with Ringing Bells’ president Ashok Chadha said that they aim to transform India’s feature users to smartphone users. Goel further added that a maximum of 25 lakh phones will be booked online and another 25 lakh will be sold offline. Both the executives promised 100% deliveries to all 50 lakh bookings by June 30, which will kick-starting from April onwards.

Read More: ? Everything You Should Know About Freedom 251 Smartphone Priced At Rs 251

Not just this, Chadha also clarified that “Ringing Bells hasn’t requested or sought any subsidies for the government.” But then Goel pitched in saying that the recent reforms by the Modi government like ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’, ‘Startup India Stand up India’ have acted like subsidies for them.

When asked about the refund policy of the company, the duo clearly stated that if someone who has pre-ordered a phone and seeks a refund before the handset is shipped can get their money back any time before June.

Freedom 251: Here’s Why Your Dream To Own The Cheapest Smartphone May Go Down The Drain

Freedom 251: Here’s Why Your Dream To Own The Cheapest Smartphone May Go Down The Drain

Ever since Noida-based company Ringing Bells lifted curtains off the Freedom 251, the world’s cheapest smartphone, it has set the nation on fire with its ‘Rs 251’ price tag. Its affordable price tag and huge media coverage made it an instant hit among masses but then, there was more to the story. The Freedom 251 got caught up in controversies because it was way too affordable to be real.

The usage of correction fluid to hide Adcom logo on the prototypes that were handed over to media representatives; crash of the Freedom 251 website, or inability to book the device online when even the site was restored…everything forced people, media houses as well as the government to find out real story behind this cheapest smartphone launch that aims at bridging the digital divide.

The result: it grabbed the attention of Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who then asked the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) to investigate the Rs 251 smartphone scheme offered by Ringing Bells.

DeitY is likely to summon the management of the Noida-based company that is offering Freedom 251 for a meeting because experts are of view that this Rs 251 scheme is too good to be true. The information was revealed in an Economic Times report. A senior official at the Ministry of Communications has told ET that meeting is likely to take place during this week itself.

However, the company’s president Ashok Chaddha, when approached by the business daily, denied the news. He said, Ringing Bells hasn’t yet received any call from IT department.

It is worth noting that this move has come after BJP MP Kirit Somaiya approached a host of ministries raising issues about the company claiming to offer the world’s cheapest mobile phone.

Earlier, the Indian Cellular Association (ICA) had urged Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to delve deep into the issue as the industry body believes that the price of this device couldn’t fall under-Rs 3,500 even if a subsidy is provided, a PTI report has revealed.

We wonder what was the ministry doing when Ringing Bells had introduced Android-based Freedom 251 smartphone in the presence of veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on February 17. But we must say, if this handset comes to the market for real, it would really start a new revolution in the Indian smartphone industry. What say?

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Facebook’s Free Basics Banned For Good in India

Late last year, the Indian government temporarily banned Facebook’s free Basics program over net neutrality concerns. Now, it’s banned for good.

A new regulation issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India bans more than just Facebook’s offering: The ruling bans zero-rated internet services altogether. In simpler terms, that means that services which allow users access to some apps and sites without using up any of their mobile data allowance are now now longer allowed.

Last year, Indian net neutrality activists argued that Free Basics was a way for Facebook to shape internet access. Which is true. Zuckerberg & Co. countered that it’s actually a way to connect people who may otherwise not have internet access. Which is also true!

But Facebook’s claims to be some kind of charitable foundation, tossing internet this way and that to the needy, doesn’t seem to hold much sway with Indian officials. In the new ruling, the Telecom Regulatory Authority writes plainly that “no service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.”

And with that, Facebook’s Free Basics is dead in India.

For its part, Facebook will be disappointed: It’s spent a lot of time, money and effort trying to roll out the scheme in India. And it’s already had to shut down a similar scheme in Egypt .

All of which suggests that while providing internet to those without it is undoubtedly a good thing, doing so while providing only access to your own software and services doesn’t wash in the slightest. Time to try again, Facebook.

Beware This Android Malware That Erases Your Phone With a Single Text

Beware This Android Malware That Erases Your Phone With a Single Text

It’s been a bad week for people’s phones , and it’s not getting any better: A Danish security firm’s found malware that ravages your Android phone with a single text-erasing data or sending rogue calls and texts.

Denmark-based security firm Heimdal detected the malware, called “Mazar,” which sends text messages that include an ostensibly harmless multimedia message link to users. Click through, and it downloads Tor to your phone, and then the actual malware, whose source the Tor software hides. (By the way, a little reminder for living in the twenty-first century, friends: Don’t click on text message links from random senders.)

Heimdal thinks that over 100,000 phones have received the Mazar text in Denmark, the BBC reports, and the firm isn’t yet sure if it’s spread to other countries.

We’ve heard of such one-text menaces targeting Android before. Last year, a University of Cambridge study found that 85 percent of Android devices could face at least one crucial security vulnerability. This report is just the latest confidence crusher threatening the operating system’s security.

Weirdly, the new malware can’t infiltrate devices using Russian as their default language. Setting your phone to a foreign language seems like an extreme measure when common sense should keep you safe.