Currently over 60% of India's roughly 750 million mobile users use phones that allow only calls and basic texts.
At first glance, Indian telecoms upstart Jio's bet on 'free' Internet-enabled phones to win over poorer customers is a near-fatal blow for low-end handset makers, most already struggling with paper-thin margins on some of the world's cheapest devices.
But industry executives and analysts say Jio's crossover feature phone - not quite a smartphone, not quite a no-frills handset – could, in fact, be a boon to the lower end of the market and suppliers that feed it, creating a new in-between category and getting more people online for the first time.
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