India and 5G

India has seen mobile revolution in last two decades where at a point there were huge number of players in the market. There has been multiple exits and now there are only numbered network operators Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea and state owned BSNL. RJio owns pan India spectrum only of 4G with no fall back options meaning they don’t have 2G/3G at all. Airtel and Vodafone Idea are traditional players who have 2G/3G and 4G services. Both these operators have been facing extreme competition due to low cost model of R Jio and there has been considerable movement of customer towards R Jio. Also with Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues of both Airtel and Vodafone Idea there has been financial distress. BSNL has just started to get into 4G now. None of the of mobile network operators will start investing in totally new infrastructure until their return on their investments are going to become really attractive for business opportunities that are not possible on 4G.

At the current situation Government has not just started the process of deciding the spectrum of 5G and license fees. The mobile network operators have not really started even doing trials and have just submitted in Jan 2020 a request for trials. So availability of 5G in India for mass deployment is anytime 2-3 years away at the minimum.

iQOO 3 5G Phone

iQoo is a subbrand of Chinese company Vivo and recently they have been advertising everywhere from print media to online about their 5G phone. They also roped in Virat Kohli as a brand ambassador. Let’s look at the technical specs of the phone and see should we really get carried away and get a 5G phone now.

iQoo 3 is based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 which is one of the initial System on Chip that supports 5G. 5G is supposed to be 100 times faster than 4G but iQoo 3 will not be that fast when compared to 4G LTE due to initial implementation of 5G specification until now. 5G spectrum is divided into under 6 GHz and mmWave. The extreme bandwidths that 5G will bring will only come with mmWave which are in the frequency range of 24 GHz to 72 Ghz that Snapdragon 865 doesn’t support and there is no network operator in the world that has deployed 5G in mmWave frequencies. Most countries are deploying 5G in under 6 GHz which is mid-band for 5G. This will give improvement in speed by factor of maximum 10 times when compared to speeds of 4G LTE. iQoo 3 (12GB+256GB option) only has support for 5G and the frequencies supported are N41/77/78 which are 5G bands. I am delving a little deeper into these bands which are called 5G New Radio Bands

N41 is Time Division Duplex (TDD) 2500 MHz, N77 is TDD 3700 MHz and N78 is TDD 3500 MHz which are all under 6GHz band and hence we will never get extreme 5G speeds that is most likely happen much later when mmWave frequencies are deployed and processors and RF front end support. 4G LTE bands are also available in similar frequency range. Rjio 4G LTE Band 40 operates at 2300 MHz frequency.

Final Verdict Without Jargon

5G phones in India are more like marketing gimmick at this point of time. With 5G not being deployed in any foreseeable future and is at least 3-4 years getting a 5G enabled phone for most of us doesn’t make lot of sense. Even if you plan to use for more than 3 years (mostly this is not the case) a 4G phone will not become redundant for a long time as both 4G and 5G is going to coexist as a technology as 4G complements 5G is many respects. Unless you really like some other features phone provides don’t buy a phone just because it is 5G enabled.

At this point of time we should wait and see how 5G systems will get deployed throughout the world and how India follows.

iQoo 5G version with 12GB + 256GB is retailing for 44990 whereas a 4G version of the with 8GB + 256GB is retailing for 39990. So iQoo is charging about 5000 extra on the 5G version. If we give about 1000 for extra 4GB RAM you will be paying 4000 extra for 5G which you will never use in India for at least 3 years or until 5G is deployed.

Please thank me below if I saved you 4000 rupees. Please do comment for any suggestions or feedback as well