5G was launched in India in October 2022. But now, nearly 14 months later, 5G has reached nearly every city and town in the country. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the telcos leading the 5G rollout in the country, while Vodafone Idea (Vi), the third largest private telco, is still trying to raise funds to begin 5G rollout. With over 100 million 5G consumers in India and over 1 billion 5G connections worldwide, the key question to ask is whether the average consumer will be able to use the next generation network technology. Does it make sense to pay extra for it?
The benefits for companies are clear. But what about the average consumer? For many, 5G still doesn’t add any utility beyond what 4G already provides. A good 4G speed always reaches 20-30 Mbps, which is enough to connect your device to a mobile hotspot, stream movies and TV shows online, use social media, etc. What more do consumers need today?
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Certainly, there may be a niche consumer base that needs a high-speed network, such as 5G, that can consistently provide download speeds of 300 Mbps or more to do their job. These people may be creators who download heavy video assets on the go to edit video content. Or maybe you’re a gamer who needs ultra-low latency and fast downloads to seamlessly play games online. However, many of these people also have access to his Wi-Fi network in hotels and event venues, and can connect to fiber broadband connections when they are at the office or at home.
Therefore, the additional utility that 5G brings is not enough. Especially if the upload speed is quite slow. Without proper upload speeds, creators won’t be able to upload what they’re creating on time, defeating the purpose of creating content. So how will 5G actually change the lives of today’s consumers?
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Telcos and vendors such as Ericsson and Nokia are focusing on 5G FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) as the biggest use case for 5G for consumers today. Reliance Jio is already offering its 5G FWA service, Jio AirFiber, to around 4000 cities/cities. It will be interesting to see how people react to his 5G FWA in India over time.
Bharti Airtel advises consumers to choose fiber over airfibre. This means that his 5G is not a good technology for consumers. Fiber remains the best option if users want high-speed internet at a fixed location, such as their home or office. So what changes will 5G bring to everyday consumers?
Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal recently said 5G is coming too soon. It looks like that. Consumers don’t care about 5G as long as they continue to get free data at the same cost. But only time will tell how carriers will monetize it. 5G FWA is how carriers are already making money from 5G, but it will be interesting to see what new ways they come up with to make money from 5G through consumers.
