Ericsson said that it is driving talks with Indian telcos for 4G and 3G coverage and capacity expansion in the country, which is currently seeing a data boom due to fast-paced smartphone adoption, coupled with disruptive pricing strategies of operators.
Nitin Bansal, head of products at Ericsson India, told ET that Indian telcos are deploying more 4G sites as compared to 3G. “Based on discussions, we see a big market in India. Growth fundamentals are strong. It will continue for the next five years”.
He added that 4G LTE deployments are starting now and will take some time to achieve wider coverage.
Bansal said that the gear vendor is bringing products that are suited for the Indian environment both financially and technologically, allowing telcos to flexibly transition from legacy technologies to newer technologies. “Our products will ensure that there are lower capex and opex for telecom operators in India also ensuring that all technologies co-exist”.
The executive also said that Indian mobile phone operators are now actively looking at deploying indoor solutions such as small cells since most data consumption happens indoors.
Having commercially deployed small cells in Mumbai recently, Ericsson is in talks with telcos and real estate developers for the deployment of these indoor solution in other metro cities. “We see this happening immediately”.
According to Ericsson’s latest report, GSM remained the dominant technology in 2016, accounting for over 70 percent of total mobile subscriptions. The gear vendor said that 3G is going to remain a dominant technology in India in terms of usage till 2022 with 740 million users.
By 2022, India is likely to have 520 million 4G subscriptions, 211 million 2G, five million CDMA and three million 5G. LTE and WCDMA/HSPA or 3G are together expected to represent 85 percent of all Indian subscriptions by 2022.
India's VoLTE user base will reach 370 million by 2022, while the global base is set to reach 4.6 billion during the same period. Currently, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio is the only operator to offer VoLTE service in India, while incumbent telcos like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are set to launch their respective VoLTE services by September this year, ET earlier reported.
"VoLTE represents a great opportunity for telcos in India who are looking to route voice calls over LTE networks enabling lower cost per minute for voice calls as well as free up legacy spectrum bands for refarming," Bansal said.
Data traffic per smartphone user in India will reach 11 GB per month by 2022, up from 2 GB per month currently. The total mobile data traffic in India will grow at a CAGR of around 40%, reaching almost 8 exabytes of data per month compared to 1 exabyte of data consumption by the end of 2016, according to Ericsson's Mobility Report 2017.
The report said India added 43 million new mobile subscriptions in the first quarter of 2017, ahead of China which added 24 million new users. It said that India's overall subscriber base will increase by 4 % per year to reach 1.4 billion by 2022, up from 1.2 billion mark in January 2017.
In 2017, smartphone subscription in India is expected to represent 30% of all mobile subscriptions, and will reach over 60% by 2020. Ericsson said that smartphone subscription India will reach 890 million by 2022.
Nitin Bansal, head of products at Ericsson India, told ET that Indian telcos are deploying more 4G sites as compared to 3G. “Based on discussions, we see a big market in India. Growth fundamentals are strong. It will continue for the next five years”.
He added that 4G LTE deployments are starting now and will take some time to achieve wider coverage.
Bansal said that the gear vendor is bringing products that are suited for the Indian environment both financially and technologically, allowing telcos to flexibly transition from legacy technologies to newer technologies. “Our products will ensure that there are lower capex and opex for telecom operators in India also ensuring that all technologies co-exist”.
The executive also said that Indian mobile phone operators are now actively looking at deploying indoor solutions such as small cells since most data consumption happens indoors.
Having commercially deployed small cells in Mumbai recently, Ericsson is in talks with telcos and real estate developers for the deployment of these indoor solution in other metro cities. “We see this happening immediately”.
According to Ericsson’s latest report, GSM remained the dominant technology in 2016, accounting for over 70 percent of total mobile subscriptions. The gear vendor said that 3G is going to remain a dominant technology in India in terms of usage till 2022 with 740 million users.
By 2022, India is likely to have 520 million 4G subscriptions, 211 million 2G, five million CDMA and three million 5G. LTE and WCDMA/HSPA or 3G are together expected to represent 85 percent of all Indian subscriptions by 2022.
India's VoLTE user base will reach 370 million by 2022, while the global base is set to reach 4.6 billion during the same period. Currently, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio is the only operator to offer VoLTE service in India, while incumbent telcos like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are set to launch their respective VoLTE services by September this year, ET earlier reported.
"VoLTE represents a great opportunity for telcos in India who are looking to route voice calls over LTE networks enabling lower cost per minute for voice calls as well as free up legacy spectrum bands for refarming," Bansal said.
Data traffic per smartphone user in India will reach 11 GB per month by 2022, up from 2 GB per month currently. The total mobile data traffic in India will grow at a CAGR of around 40%, reaching almost 8 exabytes of data per month compared to 1 exabyte of data consumption by the end of 2016, according to Ericsson's Mobility Report 2017.
The report said India added 43 million new mobile subscriptions in the first quarter of 2017, ahead of China which added 24 million new users. It said that India's overall subscriber base will increase by 4 % per year to reach 1.4 billion by 2022, up from 1.2 billion mark in January 2017.
In 2017, smartphone subscription in India is expected to represent 30% of all mobile subscriptions, and will reach over 60% by 2020. Ericsson said that smartphone subscription India will reach 890 million by 2022.
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