5G starts rolling out but not in India

The first trend to catch up with the smartphone makers in 2020 was 5G. With the service yet to be rolled out in the country, Realme and iQoo were the firsts to launch 5G-ready smartphones in India, as early as February 2020. Since then, almost all the major smartphone makers have added at least one 5G-ready smartphone to their portfolio. Jio has announced that the service can arrive in the country in the second half of 2021 but there is no clear roadmap on the same either from telecom operators or TRAI.

This means the Indian smartphone users have missed out on several benefits of the 5G tech over the last 12 months. Some of the benefits that early 5G global users are seeing include better quality video calls (66%), faster downloads (59%), and ability to stream UHD videos (55%), suggests a new study by CyberMedia Research (CMR), a market research firm.

“The most attractive benefit of 5G for early 5G smartphone users in a homebound economy, has been undoubtedly video, especially video creation and video consumption. Amidst COVID-19, 5G smartphone users have been able to do more, whether it be work from home, learn from home, or unwind at home,” Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR tells India Today.

“I believe the post-pandemic future will be essentially visual, and video-led. This video-led future will be made possible by 5G and AI that will enable creating amazing, immersive and clear videos, even in low light settings. Additionally, OEMs are also providing built-in apps for video content creation and editing. All of this will enable video content creators to shoot their own professional films using their smartphones, their ‘in pocket’ studio,” Ram says.

Ram believes that for a mobile-first nation like India, 5G is the key to foster greater digital inclusion.

“For the success of India’s digital economy, we would need to address the prevailing infrastructural and business challenges by enabling collaborative approaches involving the public and private sector for fostering 5G in India,” he says.

Source: India Today