Telcos Might Partner With Smartphone Makers To Lower 5G Cost

As telecom companies work to provide affordable 5G services in India, phone companies in the country are increasingly considering partnering with them. Telecom operators reportedly view such strategies as essential for marketing 5G services, which may initially be more expensive, according to a report by The Economic Times.

Affordable 5G Services And Brand Tie-ups

The affordable smartphone brand Realme is planning to partner with Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel to release a low-cost 5G smartphone. This comes as part of the company’s C-series, according to a report by ET that cited the company’s CEO, Madhav Sheth.

Industry experts predict that as phone manufacturers compete to sell more expensive 5G phones to customers and telcos promote more expensive telecom plans to the same, bundled services like unlimited data, access to premium entertainment and gaming content, work suites, and more may become more common. The initial rollout of 5G plans might be far more expensive than what 4G plans now cost in India because of the money invested by telecom operators for establishing the network infrastructure needed to run 5G services. In a value-driven market like India, this might be a challenge for both phone makers and telecoms to recoup their capital investments from customers.

The report also quotes another market analyst who claims that customers do not view 5G services as significantly faster than 4G, which would also call for the introduction of 5G services that are bundled with smartphones. It would be interesting to see whether such bundled services become more common as 5G coverage expands throughout India in the future.