5G In India: Ericsson Reveals Consumers’ Positive Intention Towards New Network

As India’s Internet users are forecast to top 900 million by 2025, the Swedish telecom giant Ericsson annual Mobility report revealed that about 67 per cent of consumers who participated in a survey are interested to adopt the 5G connection when it becomes available in the country.

By the second half of 2021, the network equipment provider anticipates 5G to be available in India, while in the first year of the launch, the report anticipates about 40 million smartphone subscribers to sign up.

Considering the growing demand or the willingness to adopt a next-generation technology in the country, Jio, Airtel and Vodafone have already begun testing their 5G networks.

As per Ericsson, by the end of 2026, 5G would account for roughly 26 per cent of all mobile subscribers in India, which is anticipated to be around 330 million.

India presently has the second-highest average monthly smartphone data use, with almost 14.6 GB at the end of 2020. But by the end of 2026, it anticipates this number to rise substantially to about 40GB each month on average, added the report.

It was also noted that 50 per cent of customers use their smartphones for over four hours every day, with video, social networking and mobile gaming being the most popular use cases.

Nitin Bansal, who is the MD, India & Head-Networks, South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson said that the primary patterns have highlighted the need for 5G in India, as well as the fact that people are very interested in it and they are eagerly awaiting its deployment in the country.

“Based on the surveys, what we found was that 21 per cent of smartphone users that we surveyed already have a 5G capable device,” said Bansal, while adding that they expect 5G to drive further changes in the user behaviour as current 4G users with smartphones are spending more time on enhanced video and multi-player gaming.

The trend in India is for smartphone users to use it for more than just data, as well as, voice and with 5G, this type of consumption is expected to increase due to faster networks. According to Bansal, the level of interest in fixed wireless access (FWA) and 5G is clear now. This included two types of users — one is those who use 4G for broadband connectivity and the those who use fibre connectivity at home, he explained and added that “we saw there was an interest from both these groups of subscribers to evolve to 5G.”

Furthermore, Ericsson data revealed that among those polled in India, consumers were willing to pay 50 per cent more for 5G and bundled plans with digital services, as six out of 10 people expect higher speeds with 5G.

Last year, 4G was the dominant technology, accounting for 61 per cent of mobile subscriptions, which Ericsson predicts will rise to nearly 66 per cent by 2026, and by that time older 3G technology will be phased out.

Additionally, the report noted that the coronavirus pandemic has caused the boost in India’s digital transformation, and more consumers are relying on digital services to meet their business or personal needs, whether it is digital payments, remote health consultations, online retail, or video conferencing.