India may not lag China on 5G: Report

With Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) expected to rollout 5G services in the second-half of calendar year 2020 (H2CY20), albeit selectively, India may not lag China in launching the services. On 4G, India was behind China in rolling out the services by 2-3 years, according to a note by SBICap Securities.

“To maintain market leadership, we see RJio moving soon to 5G (H2CY20),” it said.

Jio’s early 5G move is likely to be driven by the recent capital rise by incumbent telecos (both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea). The incumbents are seen raising as much as $10 billion through various initiatives (amount raised likely to be $16 billion if tower sales go through) and most of the funds are likely to go into boosting 4G capacity, the note said.