Thread by @BiIndia

#5G in India – does the aam aadmi even need it?

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By @jainrounak

For several years now, Indians have been talking about #5G. While it's not new, it has caught the fancy of Indian smartphone users, with 30 million 5G phones being sold in the last year before even telcos acquired #5GSpectrum, with services far away.

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In the meanwhile, Indians are not short of high-speed internet. #4G coverage has crossed 99% of the country, making it a ubiquitous service and not one that is just used by high paying subscribers. In fact, the cost of 1GB 4G data in India is the cheapest in the world.

#5G

#5G promises faster speeds, lower latencies and higher subscriber capacities. But, it might as well be a solution in search of a problem that most people don’t yet face. In this story, we try to address the challenges for 5G in India.

Cheap, high-speed data with unlimited voice calling and SMS makes #4G a really useful service. To make matters worse for #5G, a 20-25% increase in 4G tariffs has resulted in a decline of 7.5 million subscribers as people shut down their second SIMs.

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#5G promises to offer an increase of anywhere between 10-100 times in terms of speeds when compared to #4G. Given that our 4G speeds are comfortably higher than speeds required by the most demanding use cases, do we really need even a 10x increase in speeds?

According to a report by IDC, #5G phone shipments in India reached 30 million in 2021, with over 10 million of those in active use. This is barely a blip in terms of the total telecom users in #India, which stands at over 1.1 billion, according to @TRAI data.

The average price of #5G phones hovers around $375 (approx. ₹29,300), and by the end of this year, the research firm estimates that all phones sold above $300 will be 5G compatible. That is still a terribly higher cost when compared to the average selling price of #4G phones.

Dr. SP Kochhar, the director general of @ConnectCOAI, told @BiIndia that the telcos expect consumers to contribute only 30-40% to telcos’ #5G revenue. The telecom companies instead expect enterprises to drive their revenues, with a share of 70%.

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