‘Vi enterprise biz little hurt by absence of 5G’
NEW DELHI : While market leaders Bharti Airtel Ltd and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd have secured 5G spectrum and launched services, Vodafone Idea Ltd (Vi) is yet to do so. However, the lack of 5G has not had any major impact on the enterprise business as most solutions work on 4G, said Arvind Nevatia, chief enterprise business officer at India’s No. 3 telco.
The company has seen double-digit growth for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and SME performance, and was engaging with over 250 CXOs in its conversations across enterprises, Nevatia said in an interview. Edited excerpts: In our enterprise portfolio, there are lines of businesses which are not at all impacted, whether its 4G or 5G, for instance, in the A-to-P (application to person) business. There are businesses which are potentially impacted by 5G, but not in the near to medium term, for instance IoT (Internet of Things).
As a country, we are in the process of moving from 2G devices to 4G devices. Until the time the IoT device ecosystem and pricing do not evolve, we do not foresee any medium-term impact of not having 5G. The third element is mobility, which is common to the consumer or the enterprise businesses.
In totality, the impact of not having it is limited to certain parts of a conversation and not directly impacting other parts of the conversation. Definitely, customers are curious (about 5G). We have participated in the 5G spectrum auctions and we have full readiness.
We have showed our 5G capabilities in the Indian Mobile Congress. We are in a state of readiness and our customers understand that. In the market, we are not seeing a tearing rush, but definitely, we will give updates as things unfold.
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