The wait's over! Ringing Bells starts delivery of world's cheapest smartphone Freedom 251

New Delhi: Ringing Bells, the Noida-based company that courted controversy after announcing a phone at an astonishingly low price of Rs 251 five months back, on Friday claimed it has begun delivery of the world's cheapest smartphone in five states including Haryana, West Bengal and Bihar.

"Of the 5,000 units of Freedom 251 phones that we committed to deliver in the first phase, we have started the delivery of 2,240 phones today through distributors and couriers," Ringing Bells Director Mohit Goel told PTI.

This includes 390 phones in Haryana, 540 phones in West Bengal, 605 phones in Himachal Pradesh, 484 in Bihar and 221 phones in Uttarakhand.

Goel further said the company will initiate tomorrow the delivery of 2,000 more smartphones. Of this lot, 223 phones will go to consumers in Delhi, 364 phones in Punjab, 108 in J&K, 521 in Maharashtra, 194 in Madhya Pradesh, 225 in Jharkhand and 365 in Rajasthan.

"The balance 760 phones are going to be delivered in UP on Monday (July 11) across five areas including Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, among others," Goel said.

For the Freedom 251 smartphone, buyers will have to shell out Rs 291, including Rs 40 as the delivery charge.

Once the delivery in UP kicks off on July 11, Goel claimed that the company would start working on plans for delivery of the next lot of 200,000 smartphones.

"The parts have already arrived at the factory," he pointed out.

In February, the company announced the Freedom 251 phone which saw a mad rush of over 70 million people jostling to register but when the prototype was presented to media it turned out to be produced by another manufacturer with its logo covered.

This led to protests from buyers and consequent inquiries by police and tax officials, forcing the company to stop sale of the product and offer refunds to those who had booked the phone.

The Freedom 251 prototype touts a quad-core processor, a 4-inch screen and front and back cameras, priced at an astonishingly low price of Rs 251.

Yesterday, the company unveiled new more-expensive smartphone models as well as an LED TV priced at Rs 9,990.