Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), on Friday launched a low-cost smart phone, Bharat phone with e-governance applications for common man. It comes with a 3-inch display with dual SIM card slot is priced at Rs. 1,099. The handset is likely to be made available from June 15.
 
"The low-cost mobile device will alter the Indian feature phone industry as it has been designed especially for e-governance applications and optimised for internet access to empower common man" said R.K. Upadhyay BSNL chairman.
 
"As the phone is pre-bundled with attractive voice plan, the mobile handset offers common man the power of internet access at an affordable price and will benefit a wide section of society", added R K Upadhyay.
 
Users can also download audio, video and Java games. There is a 1.3 megapixel pixel camera as well and is powered by a 1800 mAh LAN battery, which according to the company offers 8 hours of talk time and 15 days standby time. It has a 64 MB RAM and also an internal storage of 64 MB. Also the company has offered a 1200 minutes free talk-time is offered through BSNL network on the phone.
 
The device is designed and developed by Pantel Technologies Ltd, a pioneer in the low-cost tablet PC market, the voice phone's large screen and proprietary Java operating system are suited for other user applications such as mobile banking, tele-healthcare delivery and streaming data delivery.
 
BSNL claims that Pantel Bharat phone is the first phone in India to provide internet facility and is priced low. The phone allows even common people to understand e-governance.