Indians willing to pay 50% more for 5G plans with bundled services: Nitin Bansal, India MD at Ericsson | 91mobiles.com

With the availability of 5G networks in India inching closer to reality, we had a brief chat with Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, India Head-Networks, Market Area South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson, discussing benefits of 5G, whether consumers would be willing to pay more, and Ericsson’s experience in deploying 5G in other countries. Here are some excerpts from the conversation.

What are the benefits of 5G to Indian consumers?

From the consumers’ perspective, 5G will enable improved mobile broadband (eMBB) and fixed wireless access (FWA). These will help in addressing the issue of low fixed broadband penetration in India and improve consumers’ data experience while on the go. In its early phases, 5G will assist communications service providers in more effectively meeting consumers’ growing data needs, resulting in a better overall consumer experience. According to an Ericsson study, the transition to 5G will result in a cost per gigabyte that is 10 times lower than current 4G.

5G will allow consumers to view 4K video on their smartphones, use AR/VR, mobile gaming apps, and a variety of other immersive activities new options given its ultra-low latency, expanded capacity, and enhanced security.

When 5G becomes available, how quickly will Indian consumers be willing to switch? Are we willing to pay more for 5G services?

There is high interest among Indian consumers for 5G and they are willing to pay a premium for the capabilities it brings. According to a Consumer Lab study, at least 40 million smartphone users in India will take up 5G in the first year of it becoming available. In fact, they are also willing to pay 50 percent more for 5G plans that include bundled digital services, compared to just 10 percent more for 5G connectivity.

As per the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, 5G will represent around 39 percent of mobile subscriptions in India at the end of 2027, estimated at about 500 million subscriptions.

How has been Ericsson’s global experience in deploying 5G across the world? What has been the consumers’ response?

Ericsson is well-positioned to enable Indian operators seamlessly transition from 4G to 5G, having deployed 121 active 5G networks globally. Some of the use cases we are implementing in other markets can be adapted and implemented in India as well.

In markets where 5G is available, we are witnessing quick uptake. We worked with SK Telecom, South Korea’s leading mobile operator to turn on its commercial 5G network in the world’s fastest expanding 5G market in 2019. Out of a total of 70 million consumers, South Korea has been able to add 10 million+ 5G subscribers.

In the same year, we collaborated with Telstra, Australia’s leading mobile network provider, to roll out and activate 5G in ten cities. Early users were able to enjoy enhanced network coverage, especially in subterranean and densely crowded places, while sophisticated technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality are being used for a variety of use cases, thanks to 5G’s speed and low latency.

In what ways is Ericsson assisting telecom operators in gaining consumer trust?

Ericsson has partnered with more than 40 colleges and technological institutes throughout the world, as well as 30 industrial partners. We have worked on use cases in a variety of industries in Europe, Asia, and North America, and we have been assisting operators all over the world with their 5G deployments.

In India too we are working closely with our client partners to develop several 5G use cases that are relevant to the country with our operator partners and academic partners. The successful completion of numerous trials has paved the way for the rollout of 5G services across the country. Bharti Airtel and Ericsson exhibited India’s first 5G live network in Hyderabad in 2021, as well as trials in Gurugram and Manesar. The first 5G rural trial in India was then demonstrated in Bhaipur Bramanan village on the fringes of Delhi/NCR. Ericsson also teamed up with Vodafone Idea Ltd. (VIL) to demonstrate how 5G can bring healthcare to even the most rural corners of the country. In November of last year, as part of the testing, the telco achieved blistering speeds of 4 Gbps.

To help our customers enable digital transformation, we have also launched a series of products including an intelligent automation platform, time-critical communication for real-time 5G experiences, and a 5G RAN slicing solution to support end-to-end network slicing from Ericsson. Ericsson recently announced the launch of radio 4490, a dual-band radio that uses 25 percent less power and weighs 25 percent less than the present model.

With 5G spectrum auctions likely soon, Ericsson continues to cooperate closely with all Indian operators on their network development plans. Since 2015, our hardware has been 5G ready, and Indian telecom carriers may upgrade to 5G with only a remote software installation.