Can a $12 phone get 300m illiterate Indians online?

WHEN MUKESH Ambani, India’s richest man, launched a mobile network in 2016, he offered subscribers free data for the first few months. Tens of millions flocked to the network, named Jio, sparking a fierce price war and expanding India’s online population. But keeping those customers once the offer lapsed required a different strategy. Mr Ambani realised that people want to keep in touch with friends and family and be entertained. So Jio phones came bundled with services such as social networks and chat apps as well as music, film and sport streaming. The plan worked: Jio is today India’s dominant network, with more than half the country’s 825m mobile-data subscribers. Indians’ data consumption has exploded.