Enterprises are definitely going to benefit from the rollout of 5G in India. Indian enterprises are looking to start using the 5G network in the coming few years. According to an Ericsson and Omdia study, 52% of the Indian enterprises want to start using 5G in the next 12 months and a further 31% of enterprises want to leverage it by 2024. This means that over 83% of the enterprises are looking to use 5G networks by 2024 in India. Omdia said the top-ranked benefits of 5G are superior network performance enabling automation and new methods of working.
Quality of Service Matters More than Price
The Omdia study revealed that the quality of service with 5G is more important for the users than the price. For enterprises, these are the top 5G use cases – real-time video analytics, enhanced content streaming, drones, and control of autonomous vehicles. Omdia said that Indian telcos need a balanced portfolio of spectrum assets for delivering 5G services that both the consumers as well as the enterprises want. This includes a mix of low-band spectrum for coverage, mmWave airwaves for capacity, and the mid-bands for both. The report mentioned that 5G rollout will be profoundly different from what we saw with 4G. The adoption of 5G services is also expected to happen at a faster rate given the fact that millions of consumers already own 5G smartphones and the enterprises are also ready for the rollout of 5G to gain benefits from it. The telcos do have a serious opportunity with the 5G rollout in their hands to open up new revenue streams. The spectrum auction for India has been declared and the date has been set for July 26. The rollout of 5G networks is expected to be around August – September 2022. It is expected that the Indian private telcos might not participate heavily in the upcoming spectrum auction.
