Upcoming holiday season expected to boost 5G smartphone demand

The rollout of 5G services in major cities near Diwali this year is a top priority for key telecom operators like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. It's anticipated that 5G would be made available nationwide by 2023

The demand for 5G handsets is projected to increase during the forthcoming holiday season, making it simpler for telecom providers to sign up premium 5G subscribers as soon as the services are available.

However, the launch of inexpensive smartphones in large quantities, priced between Rs 10,000 and 20,000, will signal the arrival and unfurling of 5G in India. Most 5G enabled devices now come under a premium cost range. As the services are introduced in key cities, it is anticipated that mobile devices would be available at a decreased rate by sometime next year when 5G is accessible to a larger population nationwide.

The obtainability of devices at reasonable rates, in addition to the provision of services, is still essential for the transition or upgrade to 5G. Strong 5G customer additions are anticipated to be constrained in near future by the absence of an affordable ecosystem, and the preeminent 4G subscribers, who make up between 5 to 10 percent of the 4G customer base, are expected to be the first to shift to 5G.

The rollout of 5G services in major cities near Diwali this year is a top priority for key telecom operators like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. It's anticipated that 5G would be made available nationwide by 2023, as announced by Jio at the RIL annual general meeting 2022. Reliance Jio reportedly also intends to introduce a cost-effective 5G smartphone in collaboration with Google, which is also expected to back the accelerated demand.

Gopal Vittal, the CEO of Bharti Airtel, aslo stated that the company anticipates launching its 5G services by next month and has also advised buyers to check for 5G enabled feature while purchasing new devices.

Due to the fact that nearly 10% of the mobile devices available in the Indian market are 5G equipped, the country already has a sizeable potential market for 5G sevices. As India prepares for the 5G era, the installed base of smartphones with 5G capabilities crossed 5 crore in the country.

The 5G smartphone shipment share reached 29 per cent of overall shipments in the second quarter (Q2), which was the highest ever. A research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service revealed that India's total smartphone installed base crossed 600 million (60 crore) during the April-June quarter as shipments grew 9 per cent (on-year).

As per a report that was published by Cyber Media Research, 5G shipments in India grew 163 per cent, year-on-year in the April-June period, and Samsung led the segment with a 28 per cent market share, followed by Vivo with a 15 per cent market share. One out of every three smartphones shipped in Q2 2022 was a 5G capable smartphone as shipments grew 7 per cent quarter-on-quarter, according to the ‘India Mobile Handset Market’ report published by CyberMedia Research or CMR.

These mobile customers will be the first to be targeted by telecom operators that are looking to capitalise on the high (average revenue per user) ARPU customers. For those who wish to replace their current devices or upgrade to the newest or latest models, the holiday season will be the ideal time. Many smartphone companies including Xiaomi and Realme have launched discounts worth billions of rupees to entice customers. In order to make 5G phones more accessible consumers, telecom operators and smartphone makers are researching ways to bundle unlimited bandwidth, gaming, and OTT services.

But what shouldn't be missed in all this is that India still has a large population of nearly 350 million 2G customers who are not online and are at the bottom of the ARPU chart. Such customers are abandoned or ignored when India transitions to the most recent technologies.