‘80% of new smartphones will be 5G-enabled in India by 2023’

NEW DELHI: As India rides on 5G with more than 50 cities and towns now enjoying the new technology, the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said on Monday that by the end of 2023, 75-80 per cent of the new smartphone launches will be 5G-enabled.

The 5G services were launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 1. Telecom service providers have launched the service in select cities and plan to cover the entire nation by the end of 2023 or early 2024.

“India as a nation is an early adopter of 5G technology. This 5G technology has opened a vast opportunity for a new generation of telecom equipment manufacturers, application providers, and internet of things (IoT), machine-2-machine (M2M) and healthcare services, among others,” said Mohindroo.

The mobile device ecosystem was an early starter for manufacturing 5G phones. Even before the launch of 5G services, approximately 80-100 million 5G-compatible phones were already in the market.

5G will represent around 53 per cent of mobile subscriptions in India by 2028, with 690 million users, according to ‘Ericsson Mobility Report’. 5G subscriptions in India were expected to reach around 31 million by the end of 2022.