The Representative

India's Youth News Tank

Qualcomm And Jio Test 5G

2 min read
jio tests 5g

The quantum leap to 5G is nearer than it seems. Jio and Qualcomm achieved a test speed of 1 GBPS on Jio’s 5G solution using a Qualcomm platform. India which historically has always had a 10-year lag when it comes to tech might be one of the first countries to adopt 5G

Challenges remain and within them are opportunities;

  1. Spectrum in India is by far the most expensive in the world. The lower you go in the radio freq band ( 500 Mhz – 4000MHz) the more expensive it is. The only spectrum available in India is the 700Mhz(very exp) and 3500Mhz as of today. 5G works on both

2. The higher you are in this radio frequency band the more towers you need to have better coverage. It’s either buying an extremely expensive spectrum or a huge Capex spend to increase infra. It’s very obvious who has the money to do this and who does not

3. The industry after a long time has seen positive Free Cash flow. While current incumbents definitely cannot afford 5G right now, it looks JIO will have the whole cake

Will this have a huge impact on other firms – Initially no as 5G is expected to be expensive and the average ARPU in India is ~140. A niche few will migrate. All great tech starts out with a niche, creates a network effect, and before you know it the second-order effects are huge

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