In an effort to take advantage of the potential in rural telecom markets, Spice Telecom has made announcement about the launching of its ‘People’s Phone’, S-300, which comes packed with a lifetime prepaid connection at just Rs 599.

Mr. Navin Kaul, CEO, Spice communication ltd, stated that the GSM mobile phone will initially be available in two states including Karnataka and Punjab within the next two months.

Weighing just 75 grams, the handset doesn’t have a LCD display and SMS function. However, it consists of an audio interface system available in Kannada language in Karnataka and Punjabi language in Punjab.

The users can make outgoing calls to any local number at Re 1 per minute, and the phone offers talk time of 3 hours and a 15-day battery backup, which in turn reduces the need for everyday recharging.

“Next level of mobile revolution comes from rural areas. The product has been completely developed by Spice after lot of research conducted in rural areas of Karnataka,’’ Mr. Kaul added.

Moreover, the handset features speaker phone and can save nine speed dials for easy calling. The hot key function in the phone lets user to obtain important information in Kannada on Mandi rates for vegetables, pulses, beverages, cereals, dry fruits, flowers and oil seeds and entertainment services like mobile radio, jokes and devotional songs.

Mr. Kaul also said that Brail language would be available on the keypad of this phone in near future.