Recent active participation of three telecom companies – Airtel, Reliance Jio And vodafone The enthusiasm of mobile users in India about technology may be in line with. According to the findings of the Ookla Consumer Survey among smartphone users aged 18 years and above in urban and rural areas of India, 89% of the respondents showed interest in upgrading to 5G connectivity.
Of these, 48% of the respondents plan to upgrade to 5G as soon as it becomes available in their area, even if it calls for changing service providers. 20 percent of the respondents will wait for their service providers to upgrade to 5G network. 14% of respondents intend to avail services after upgrading to a 5G enabled handset, and 7% will wait for their current contract period to end. Those who aren’t sure about the new technology will probably wait to see how tempting it is once other people start using it. Only 2% said they do not intend to upgrade to 5G.
What do Indian consumers expect from 5G roll out as per Ookla survey?
* Consumers have an appetite for video streaming and gaming: The survey shows that if mobile internet connections were better, 70% of respondents would increase their use of video streaming, while 68% said they would boost their mobile gaming. Operators acquired a total of 44,960 MHz of spectrum in the 26 GHz spectrum band (mmWave), which is particularly useful for streaming and gaming due to its high throughput. It will also give additional capacity in dense areas like stadiums.
* Consumers want faster speeds: 42% of respondents believe that faster speeds will improve the service they are currently providing the most. The good news is that the spectrum holding of operators in the C-band will help them do so. Both Airtel and Jio splurge on C-band spectrum in the auction, securing spectrum in all 22 telecom circles, while Vodafone bagged spectrum only in their priority circles. Having access to contiguous spectrum helps in achieving faster, lower latency and greener 5G services. In addition to faster speeds, 24% of respondents want a more reliable connection, while 21% want better indoor coverage. However, only 1 in 10 respondents indicated better outdoor coverage as a factor that would be most beneficial.
* The delay in India’s 5G auction brought some benefits: namely, a reduction in the cost of 5G hardware as the technology and vendor ecosystem matures. After the spectrum auction, Bharti Airtel has already contracted Ericsson. Nokia, and Samsung will deploy 5G services in August 2022. The move by Indian operators to adopt Open RAN will bring down the cost of the network even further. Another major factor is the 5G device ecosystem, with 5G smartphone prices falling since the technology’s launch. , As per the survey, almost half of the respondents have a 5G ready handset.
What are the disadvantages of adopting 5G?
Cost, lack of education and 5G phones are the main barriers to 5G adoption. Like any new technology, there are many challenges to be faced, such as affordability, coverage and consumer education. Ookla’s survey results reveal that the main reason for not upgrading to 5G is the perceived cost of 5G tariffs. More than a quarter of those not planning to upgrade said they thought 5G tariff costs would be too expensive, followed by 24% citing a lack of 5G knowledge as an issue, and 23% not having a 5G capable phone was. Only 1.4% of the total respondents are satisfied with the existing network performance and would not upgrade to 5G.
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