Buying a Lyf Flame 4,5 and 6 gives 3 months of unlimited 4G connectivity at just Rs 2,999

Back in 2003 when Reliance Infocomm introduced its Monsoon Hungama offer, everyone was running about to jump on to the CDMA network that offered great connectivity with some interesting WAP services. Data was not too big, connectivity was. Thousands of subscribers who were paying a pretty penny for voice calls and SMS jumped on to the service which was the first one to offer a multimedia mobile phone with a tariff rate as low as 40 paise per minute and 400 minutes of calls to WLL mobile phones for free. The incoming calls were free and text messages were charged 50 paise. Despite all the fine print, this was a big deal and plenty of users fell for it.

The current day scenario however is a lot different. Calling plans have become way more affordable than the past and nobody really cares about text messages. What everyone is worried about is data, those tiny bits and bytes that subscribers have a variety of use cases for. From the new age text messaging service WhatsApp and other messengers to voice over IP calls (VoIP) there are indeed no limits to the things one can get done with a stable internet connection.

And this where the plethora of operator plans come in. Data plans in particular are expensive. And everyone from Vodafone to Idea offers them with varying speeds and coverage. Point is they are all expensive no matter which operator you choose, which is why some have even come up with capped data plans that let you have some control over your monthly bills.

And that brings us to Reliance Retail’s recently discounted 4G Lyf-branded smartphones. The Lyf 4, 5 and the 6 smartphones barely pack in 512MB of RAM, so running heavy apps on them may not be a good idea. They are however good at placing calls, and can place calls over VoLTE, that are quicker to connect and feature better voice clarity as well. One can also tether data using them meaning that you can hook any of your smartphones and laptops at home to 4G network with high data speeds, that are currently available for free for the first three months of usage.

So yes, they do make for a good deal. Buy a Lyf Flame smartphone, get unlimited 4G data for 3 months and then you have to take call whether you want to stick to the high speed network or simply switch back to your older operator. At Rs 2,999 the smartphones will still be useful for placing calls and they are unlocked, so it indeed seems like a win win situation.

Disclaimer: Reliance Jio is owned by Reliance Industries, who also own Network18, the publisher of Firstpost and tech2