5G Services: 43% of Indians are not in favor of an increase in tariff rates

As India rolls out 5G services at some locations in select cities, 43 percent of those willing to switch to 5G are not willing to pay anything more than the current tariff for 3G or 4G services, a report showed on Friday.

While many more smartphone users are likely to come on board if the shift to 5G addresses issues like call drop/connect, network availability, and low speed, another 43 percent indicated they are willing to pay up to 10 percent extra tariff, according to the report by online community platform LocalCircles.

Just 2 percent of them showed a willingness to pay between 25-50 percent more tariff for 5G.

As against 4G speeds of 40-50 Mbps depending on the area and connectivity in India, 5G services are expected to support speeds of 300 Mbps or more.

To begin with, Reliance Jio and Airtel have identified Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Varanasi, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Gandhinagar, Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow, Kolkata, Siliguri, Gurugram and Hyderabad for the first phase of launch.

According to the report, just 5 percent of mobile subscribers surveyed are ready to move to 5G in 2022.

While 20 percent surveyed said they already have a 5G device, another 4 percent are likely to get one this year.

Another 20 percent said they are likely to purchase a 5G device in 2023.

Out of more than 500 million smartphone users in India, about 100 million are expected to have a 5G-ready device by the end of this year.

Nearly 24 percent of respondents shared that they have no plans to buy a newly upgraded device in the foreseeable future, while another 22 percent are yet to make up their minds, the findings showed.

The Department of Telecommunication met with the operators as well as phone makers earlier this week to update the government about their plans so that the 5G roll-out can happen at the earliest.

Samsung said that they are working with their operator partners and are committed to rolling out OTA updates across all its 5G devices by mid-November, Apple said that it will start rolling out 5G services to iPhone users in December.

The majority mobile subscribers expect that upgrading to 5G service will lead to a reduction in call drop/connect issues, better network availability, and speed. (KB/IANS)