200,000 Indians Irate After Company Fails to Deliver $3.70 Smartphone

Ringing Bells has skipped one more deadline for the delivery of India's cheapest smartphone to the thousands of customers who pre-booked the product online.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Promises are made to be broken. This holds true for the controversial Indian smartphone maker Ringing Bells. Just a day before, Ringing Bells was to start delivering the Rs 251 ($3.70) smartphone ‘Freedom 251' to 200,000 customers. However, the controversial manufacturer has postponed delivery by one more deadline.

Mohit Goel, the CEO of Ringing Bells, spoke at length with Sputnik about why they could not meet the deadline and what they plan to do next.

"We will begin delivery of ‘Freedom 251' to the customers in 2-4 days. In a day or two, we will provide all the details related to the delivery of ‘Freedom 251'."

The company claims that it is committed to deliver the smartphones at the promised cost of $3.70 to consumers who have pre-booked the phone online, despite the company having to incur a loss of $2.65 per smartphone. The manufacturer plans to come out with 10 new models of inexpensive smartphones and hopes to offset the loss incurred due to the Freedom 251.  

However, the company never expected overruns. According to Goyal, "We were expecting a profit even at the sale price of $3.70. But, the cost of the deal with the smartphone application maker proved to be beyond the target. Still, we will deliver the smartphone to consumers but the government has to support us for the larger cause."

The 'Digital India' campaign, conceived and implemented by Modi's government, envisages that every Indian will be connected to the Internet to maximize the reach of government schemes as well as facilitate research and the provision of study materials for millions of students. However, Goyal says "the irony is that 750 million Indians do not have smartphones. I want the government to distribute smartphones to every Indian. For the sake of that 50% of Indians, the government can ask any company to manufacture cheap smartphones. For this, the government can provide subsidies to the manufacturer for the benefit of millions of Indians. The subsidy amount will be up to $3 billion."

Goyal says that his motive behind this scheme was to show to the world that India can deliver smartphones at the cheapest rate.

"Even if government wants to procure 700 million smartphones at a cost of Rs 251 ($3.70), the company can deliver the amount within a year, provided that the loss incurred per unit is subsidized by the government. If the government can't trust this company, they can acquire Ringing Bells or send government officials to oversee the manufacturing process. However, we will not bribe leaders or officials to bag the project."

Launched in February this year, ‘Freedom 251' is the name of the scheme under which Ringing Bells claims to deliver smartphones at Rs 251 ($3.70). The company had received 75 million bookings through its website, which crashed due to high demand within a few minutes. Soon, a controversy erupted over the authenticity of the deal, prompting the government to launch an inquiry and scrutinize the company. Kirit Somaiya, a Parliamentarian, filed an FIR accusing Ringing Bells of engaging in financial fraud. The Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and Ministry of Telecommunications carried out investigations against the company and its promoters.

Goyal says, "We have provided all the details the agencies wanted from us. We have no idea about the case but from our side we are certain that nothing fraudulent will be found with the scheme. Nothing wrong has been done on our side."