An ultra cheap Android smartphone has gone on sale in India, costing just 251 rupees (£2.77).
The Freedom 251 is an Android phone advertised by Ringing Bells will ship in batch of 200,000, but the company will make loss on each handset.
The specifications are impressive for such a low price:
Ringing Bells founder and chief executive Mohit Goel told the Indian Express: “We will have a loss, but I am happy that the dream of connecting rural and poor Indians as part of the Digital India and Make in India initiatives has been fulfilled with Freedom 251.”
Since February, Ringing Bells has faced increasing scepticism. At the launch of the phone the company showed off supposed “prototypes”, which turned out to besmartphones made by another Indian manufacturer with the branding covered.
A government investigation led to a raid of the company’s offices over tax and the lack of certification for the device with the country’s telecoms regulator. Ringing Bells was also accused of cheating and threatened with lawsuits over therebranding of Adcom smartphones.