The Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) is reportedly looking to summon Ringing Bells officials over the pricing of its Freedom 251 smartphone. The company has been taking a lot of flak regarding the price tag of the smartphone, as industry experts suggest that the price of this upcoming phone is impossible and too good to be true.
According to a report by the Economic Times, the meeting between government and the company officials is likely to happen this week. ET reports that Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had asked IT Secretary Aruna Sharma to go over Ringing Bells' claims and find out if its claims are worthwhile. The IT ministry has also asked the IT Secretary to take help from State Chief secretaries, if required.
Datawind CEO Sunit Tulli recently said that the Freedom 251 is "a marketing promotion for an existing Chinese product that is already selling in Nehru Place". In a recent press conference he explained how just the 1GB RAM and 8GB of storage aboard the Freedom 251, would cost more than the phone itself. To recap, the Freedom 251 sports a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, a 4-inch qHD display, a 3.2 rear camera, VGA camera at the front, and a 1450mAh battery. The phone also has a microSD card slot, supports WiFi, 4G and comes with dual-SIM slots.