Are Indians ready to upgrade to 5G? New survey says very much

5G deployment in India is likely to begin later this month. While Airtel has said it will begin rolling out 5G from August, Reliance Jio is expected to make a 5G-related announcement on August 15. The anticipation for 5G services has been high, considering smartphones with 5G began selling in India more than two years back. Ookla, a network measurement platform that owns the Speedtest app, recently conducted a consumer survey to find out that 89 percent of respondents are interested in upgrading to 5G.

In its survey, Ookla, however, pointed out the challenges 5G deployment in India is likely to face. The most crucial among them could be affordability. More than one-fourth of the respondents that do not plan to upgrade to 5G cited the 5G tariff as the main reason. Vodafone Idea recently said 5G services will come with a premium in India, while Airtel, too, hinted at some sort of additional charges over the existing 4G tariff.

Are we 5G ready?

The recent conclusion of the spectrum auction of 5G airwaves reinstated the confidence in a timely rollout of 5G services. The government has hinted that the rollout could start as early as next month in all 13 cities earmarked for the initial deployment. Reliance Jio acquired the most spectrum, including the coveted 700MHz, which can cover great distances and offer reasonably good speed when combined with C-band. Airtel and Vodafone Idea restricted their bidding to the C-band mostly, which is considered the ideal set of airwaves for both coverage and speed.

Ookla’s survey spans a sample of 2,000 smartphone users aged 18 and above across urban and rural areas of India. A total of 89 percent said they are willing to upgrade, while only 1.4 percent said they were satisfied with their 4G network. 48 percent of the respondents willing to upgrade said they will upgrade as soon as 5G becomes available in their region, even if it requires them to switch their provider. 20 percent of them said they would wait for their service provider to roll out 5G and not change to a different one. 14 percent of people said they would upgrade after they have bought a 5G phone, while 7 percent said they would wait for their contract period to end.

What Indians expect from the 5G rollout

The adoption of 5G services in India will largely be driven by the hunger to stream content faster than now, thanks to dramatically higher data speeds. According to the survey, 70 percent of respondents agreed they would increase their use of video streaming services after 5G, while 68 percent said their gaming needs will go up. For faster speeds, the C-band and the mmWave are crucial. The 26GHz spectrum band offers the fastest speed, however, with limited coverage and penetrative power. But it will be suitable for closed spaces, such as stadiums. For dense areas, operators will likely use the C-band spectrum in tandem with mmWave technology to deliver high speeds while covering larger distances.

5G, the respondents believe, will also improve telecom services for them. The survey pointed out that 42 percent of people believe faster speeds would improve their provider’s overall service, while 24 percent believe the mobile internet connection would become more reliable. 21 percent of respondents believe 5G will improve indoor coverage. Reliance Jio is the only carrier to have acquired the 700MHz spectrum.

Commenting on the survey findings, Sylwia Kechiche, principal analyst, Enterprise at Ookla said, “While mobile users in India are among the most data-intensive users in the world, India’s 4G/LTE networks have become a bottleneck for demand.” She added, “Now that operators have acquired 5G spectrum, they start their race to become the first operators to go to market with 5G, with some already hinting that 5G deployments will begin in the next few months.”

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