‘130 mn 5G users in India by end-2023’

livemint.com:

Reliance Jio Infocomm, claimed that the operator contributed to “85% of the overall 5G capacity in the country." Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Airtel’s parent firm, Bharti Enterprises, added that the operator already covers “5,000 districts and 20,000 villages" across India, and aimed to cover all circles of the country by March next year. Vodafone-Idea, the third of three private telecom operators in the country, also announced at the time that it will “initiate significant investments in order to roll out 5G networks and further expand 4G coverage across the country." The expansion of 5G networks in India comes in line with global 5G network expansion.

Fredrik Jejdling, executive vice-president and head of networks at Ericsson, said there is an “increasing number of 5G standalone networks being deployed, bringing opportunities to support new and more demanding applications for both consumers and enterprises." Industry experts peg 5G devices to be growing consistently in the country. On 7 November, market researcher International Data Corp.

(IDC) in India’s quarterly smartphone market report said 5G smartphones contributed to 58% of all shipments to the country in the September quarter. However, most of the growth in 5G smartphone shipments were driven by a surge in demand for premium smartphones priced at around ₹50,000 or above.

Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at IDC India told Mint last month that a concerning factor for the overall market is stagnating smartphone sales. “Even if brands succeed in bringing sub- ₹10,000 5G smartphones, the boost to the smartphone market will not be exponential.

However, 5G itself as a sub-category will continue to grow driven by organic demand," he said. Ericsson’s