Data usage in India shows need for early 5G network: Ericsson

The humongous amount of data flowing in Indian telecom market shows that 5G network in the country is required soon, a senior official of Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson said Wednesday. "5G might be not so much discussed in India but to be honest with you, the amount of data that goes through those network, from mobile broadband perspective, 5G is going to needed soon in India just to compliment sheer amount of data that goes through the networks," Ericsson Executive Vice President Fredrik Jejdling told PTI. 

He said that data consumption on mobile networks per user is among the highest in the world. India is among the top three markets for Ericsson. 

Indian telecom operators have said that they have their networks ready to offer 5G services and will start it once spectrum is allocated to them.

Telecom operators have, however, said that spectrum price recommended by sector regulator is too high to suit their business case. 

Jejdling said that the telecom industry is at a stage where the market share is sort of set and the industry has really accelerated with pace of 5G compared to what was being thought couple of years back. 

"Today, we are quite well positioned with regards to 5G. We have some 13 contracts (globally) for 5G now they are increasing by the day and we are proud of the progress that we have made so far," he said. 

He said that India market has surprised the company with technology transition and growth in data consumption. 

"I remember we had announced 3G in India in 2010 and in my view 3G had a really short period in India and 4G came in quite quickly afterwards. The pickup of 4G and mobile data in India has been nothing less than extraordinary. In a market which was largely served by fixed line access to transition to a market with one of the highest amounts of data traffic per user," Jejdling said. 

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He said that company has been supplying in India 5G ready equipment since 2015 and conducted used case trial in India with Jio and Bharti Airtel.