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Amid the rise in adoption of ultra high-speed services in the country, as many as 31 million additional users in India are expected to upgrade to 5G phones in 2023, said a report on Tuesday. The current base of 5G handset users in India is expected to be around 100 million driven by two players — Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio — that launched 5G services in October last year.
“In India, almost half of respondents plan to purchase a new handset in the next six months. Our assessment considers not only consumer intent, but also affordability, taking into account household income and the age of their current phones. As a result, 18 per cent are more inclined to buy a 5G phone, and we estimate that 31 million users may upgrade to a 5G phone in 2023,” said the Ericsson ConsumerLab report.
A significant number of users in India express very high satisfaction with 5G, compared to the early adopter markets. Additionally, the perception of 5G availability, which reflects how consumers perceive their frequent connection to 5G, is on a par with or even exceeds that of many early adopter markets, the report said.
“Three in 10 of 5G users in our survey emerged from major urban centers like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. To delve deeper into India’s 5G landscape, Ericsson ConsumerLab conducted interviews with a substantial sample size of 3,000 Indian smartphone users, all aged between 15 and 69 from Tier I-III towns and cities,” it added.
This sample included over 1,800 individuals who have embraced 5G technology and given the scale of the sample, the data provides statistically significant insights into the opinions of 250 million urban consumers within the Indian population, encompassing 50 million 5G users, it said.
“In a comparison between consumer satisfaction with 4G versus 5G network performance across different parameters such as mobile gaming, video streaming, download speeds and video calling, we found that 5G consumers in India consistently report significantly higher levels of satisfaction, with a nearly 30 per cent increase compared to 4G users,” it further elaborated.
This indicates that 5G is effectively addressing the shortcomings of 4G and elevating user satisfaction in terms of both speed and application experiences, the report said.
“Some of these differences can also be attributed to ownership of premium 5G smartphones among early adopters. Around 30 per cent of 5G users in our survey own a smartphone priced higher than $500,” it added.
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