Are we headed to the same fate as aviation industry?

[Kyle Crane]

This is a bar graph i made online to show how many cities/towns each operator has network in



You can clearly see how Jio 5G dominates the market with 7764 Cities/Towns vs Airtel with 2227 Cities/Towns (still not even 50% of Jio) and then there is Vi which had a delay of almost 3 years and could only roll out to 30 cities so far and has pretty much stopped 5G roll out for now

Just like the aviation Industry where Indigo has the biggest fleet followed with Air India and then Spicejet

and how Indigo's preplanned tactics to pressurize the govt actually hurted the customers instead since people really dont have choice other than Air India (Inc AI express) and SpiceJet

 

[Kaiju404]

Aren't we already into it. Jio came with only one goal that is to clean up all the other telco operators and while Airtel survived those times so now both rocking. And tbh VI is just an honorary participant

 

[Kyle Crane]

i feel only people of Mumbai/Delhi/Kolkata/bengaluru and some other cities which have Vi 5G

only these people have option of 3 operators ,since rest of India only has either Jio or Airtel since taking up Vi is generally a really bad idea due to poor network

we have entered a duopoly already

 

[pillaicha]

We haven't entered a duopoly. There's a huge number of 2G subscribers who are unwilling to migrate to 4G and 5G. They see no added benefit and only added expenses in doing so. Their main usage is call time. They cannot do without it. As long as one operator offers cheap plans and 2G only solutions, that core base of customers won't have any reason to migrate. ARPU is low, agreed. Hence the delay in rollout of newer tech. There's quite literally no monetisation for 5G with the ARPU we have in our country.

The only solution I see going forward is dissolving net neutrality for the lowest telecom standard of a company. What I mean is, for example, Jio has both 4G with 4G core, and 5G with 5G core running separately with interconnects between the two for SRVCC. Airtel has sunset 3G, but has 2G, 4G, and 5G NSA.

Jio could consider using the 4G network as a proponent of net neutrality, but offer specialised services, differential speeds, latency, QOS to customers with specific needs on their 5G network. This will divide ARPU into 2 categories. Basic ARPU, and advanced ARPU, with an overall combined ARPU.

Customers will be free to activate packs/pay-as-you-go to latch onto 5G and use specific services. Maybe it's a last minute high speed data transfer (eMBB), or maybe it's needing it for teleconferencing (URLLC), or VR gaming (URLLC), or AR at a sports arena or concert (URLLC+ eMBB). Slices can be offered with differential pricing and activation of a pack, or via a USSD code, or through their app, can enable them to latch onto the slice they need.

For everyone and everything else, general daily usage, there's 4G. With 100% net neutrality.

 

[Kyle Crane]

With 100% net neutrality

So u mean 4G should have Net neutrality while 5G should not?

man this sounds like Facebook free basics vol 2

 

[pillaicha]

Yes. As per my post, break net neutrality in principle for 5G. There won't be free services on there, of course. The whole point is to monetise a new tech to not only make money from it, but to have something in hand when the next tech comes along.

 

[pillaicha]

It's time to think beyond "the size of the pipe doesn't matter; the internet is free for all."

We haven't just increased the size of the pipe. We invented a technology that specifically allows differential services to be delivered to different tiers of customers, through the same pipe.

The logic of pure net neutrality doesn't apply to 5G SA.

 

[Kyle Crane]

we already have enough DPI in our networks and if net neutrality is hindered then well that sucks

do keep in mind tho that 4G wont remain the same as it is today ,Bharti has announched

With more customers moving to the 5G network, Airtel is re-farming its mid-band spectrum to expand 5G services on its 1800, 2100, 2300 MHz bands across the country. - Airtel in 2024

considering that in future (ie 2026,2027,2028 and so on) the existing 4G bands are shifted to 5G and 4G is only used as a backup technology mostly for calls or minor data needs while 5G stands at where 4G is today

Not having net neutrality would hurt the most then

 

[pillaicha]

Spectrum refarming is a necessary evil in our country. But government mandated QOS will prevent over-degradation of 4G too much I believe.

 

[Kyle Crane]

It’s not exactly but it was bound to happen just like 3G bands refarmed to 4G

Dont believe in govt QOS all that much

Only time will tell now