5G and 4G face close competition in user demand

5G is yet to officially arrive in India. But the smartphone manufacturers have already started selling smartphones with 5G connectivity support. 2021 saw many new affordable 5G smartphones making it to the market. It is still quite a bit of time for the 5G networks to launch in India, and there’s no saying whether the telcos will right away offer prepaid or postpaid services with 5G to the users or only reserve the 5G networks for the enterprises initially.

That said, there’s no denying that 4G networks will still play the role of dominant network technology for the next few years. Ericsson’s Mobility Report for 2021 suggests that 4G will be in India till 2027 at least.

51.7% users said they need 4G
Upon a survey conducted by TelecomTalk with over 524 users participating, it was found that over 51.7% of users said that they would prefer 4G over 5G. The remaining 48.3% of users said that they need 5G now.

The use cases developed for 5G so far suggest that they are primarily useful for enterprises only. 5G isn’t directly useful for consumers as it might be expensive as well as unnecessary if 4G is already offering more than 50 Mbps speed.

4G is sufficient for the smartphone needs that users have today. 5G would play an important role in the proliferation of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and a more connected world. Normal consumers wouldn’t direct require 5G, at least for some time now. The 4G networks, if they provide over 50 Mbps speed, are more than enough for the normal smartphone consumer for data and voice calling needs.

The survey results are marginally different from each other, and a few more votes for 5G could have changed the outcome. There are millions of users already who own 5G smartphones. The numbers are only expected to increase as 2022 approaches. With more affordable 5G smartphones coming into the market, more people would want access to 5G devices. TelecomTalk