Indian Telcos Will Keep Their Focus on 4G, 5G Insignificant for Now: Opinion

4G Has Multiple Defined Use Cases

Every technology has certain use cases. Since 4G has been in the market for quite some time, its use cases have been defined. People know what they can do with 4G networks and feel quite comfortable around it. For 5G to settle the same way in India, it would take some time. The whole digital ecosystem will need to adapt to 5G, and that won’t happen in a month or even a year.

One of the biggest things that come into play when telecom operators talk about 5G is how much time it will take to roll out. Initially, the operators are only expected to launch 5G services in metro cities. For a PAN-India 5G coverage, it would take the operators at least 3 to 4 years of very hard work.

4G Good for Revenues

One of the biggest factors that will push the operators to keep their focus on 4G is the lack of availability of low-cost 5G smartphones. There are smartphones under Rs 20,000 that support 5G connectivity, but they lack certain features because the companies want to make them cheap. Thus a large section of people who are aware of smartphones are still going for 4G devices that are not only cheap but also feature-rich as compared to 5G.

So the majority of the revenues will come from 4G networks. Thus the operator’s won’t be too keen to announce 4G as a legacy network and move on from it.

5G Spectrum Auctions

5G spectrum auctions are expected to take place next year now. Further, once the operators have acquired the spectrum, it would still take them months before they can deploy it across multiple sites in India to avail live commercial 5G networks for their users.

One of the biggest challenges related to the 5G auctions remains the pricing of the airwaves. The telcos want the 700 MHz band and other 5G bands at a feasible rate so that they can roll out the next generation networks in a planned manner and not exceed their costs.