‘India to have up to 150 million 5G phones till network roll-out’: Top Jio official
NEW DELHI: India can expect 100 to 150 million 5G smartphones existing in the country by the time 5G network starts off, said a top executive of Jio on Friday.
While speaking at the India Mobile Congress, Sunil Dutt, president, devices and mobility of Jio, also highlighted that today India has 500 million smartphone users and by the time 5G network rolls out, the number will be 600 million.
“We can expect between 100 to 150 million 5G smartphones existing in the country by the time the network starts off,” said Sunil Dutt.
Jio had launched 4G only network in 2016 while other telcos are still offering 2G services, besides 3G and 4G.
“We’ve already seen how 4G actually impacted the country. And there was a generational shift from 2G to 4G, because 3G really did not have any kind of an impact on this country,” said Dutt.
The government may start the 5G auctions process in April-May next year.
Recently, TRAI sought views from stakeholders on issues including the applicable reserve prices and band plan, block size, quantum of spectrum to be auctioned.
The panel also included Raghavan Sampath, director, Business Development of semiconductor firm MediaTek, who said both 4G and 5G phones will coexist in future.
“Today 5G phones have breached sub-Rs 15,000 already. By 2022, expectation is that it would go between $150 and $200, that is around Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000,” said Sampath.
Bharti Airtel, also in the panel, said that the company expects cloud gaming to be a growth driver when 5G comes into play.
“We are now partnering with certain publishers to see how the games are going to evolve to a 5G world,” he added.
The telco also estimates demand for enterprise businesses to grow once 5G comes in,” said Adarsh Nair, chief product officer for Airtel.
Auction likely next year
The government may start the 5G auctions process in April-May next year.
Recently, TRAI sought views from stakeholders on issues including the applicable reserve prices and band plan, block size, quantum of spectrum