The truth about Ringing Bells, the makers of the world’s cheapest smartphone at Rs 251
On July 8, Mohit Goel , CEO and founder of Ringing Bells , the makers of what is being touted as the world's cheapest smartphone personally hand-delivered the first model of Freedom 251 to a surprised Ankita Birla , a 27-year-old vendor co-ordinator from Noida . Birla had to pay Rs 291 for the smartphone, of which Rs 40 includes a delivery charge levied by the company. Like the countless others who had placed an order for the smartphone, she too was skeptical about the phone ultimately reaching her. "I never thought the company would deliver," she admitted, echoing the thoughts of the entire Indian smartphone market . Her suspicions were only reinforced by all the controversies the company was mired in- from being accused of being a fraud and defaulting on vendor payments to relabeling an existing brand and demanding Rs 50,000 crore from the Indian government to continue its production. Twenty-nine-year-old Goel, on the other hand is unperturbed and