We Don't Even Get Proper 3G/4G Download Speed In India, So What's A 5G Phone Going To Run On?

India's 4G network speed sucks, and there's no way to sugarcoat this fact.

People have made their peace with frequent call drops and internalized dead zones with no connection, blaming all the bad luck on their 'kundli' -- what to do, we are proud Indians, who love to adjust and blame all misfortune on poor destiny.

But whenever your phone latches on and you finally see 3G or 4G on your phone's screen, at least then data should flow without any hiccups. Wishful thinking!

Reuters

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I don't remember the last time a YouTube video played stutter-free on my phone, and the number of times I fire up WhatsApp and see it offline and struggling to connect has only increased. Increasingly, I now get a cascade of notifications all at once (email, WhatsApp, FB messenger, Twitter, etc) -- which shouldn't happen if my phone is always connected to the network, right? What do we pay phone bills for? The whole situation is extremely frustrating.

Here's what's happening: 2G is a fossil, 3G is dead, 4G feels like it's on life support, and now there's talk of 5G to suddenly coming in and magically solve all our data problems? Well, not so fast. Time for a reality check.

India's 4G network is one of the worst

We may be the biggest telco market in the world, from a growth perspective, but we get arguably the worst 4G data speeds on our phones. Don't blame your older phone processor, there's a larger more fundamental problem in this jigsaw which is out of your control.

reuters

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There's no cute way to say this: We in India have some of the world's worst network speeds on the entire planet (well maybe with the exception of Kolkata), and there's data to prove this.

According to OpenSignal's report from Feb 2018, India ranks last among 88 countries when it comes to 4G download speed. People who think they have 4G connections in India get worse connection speeds than Pakistan (14 mbps) and Algeria (9 mbps).

Then in July 2018, Speedtest.net Ookla's report pegged India at 109th out of 124 nations, purely based on aggregate 4G download speeds across the world. The report found India's 4G speed slower than Sri Lanka and Myanmar, among other nations.

Both these reports validate what we all experience on our phones pretty much everyday.

reuters

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While India's 4G network has spread far and wide, connecting far flung corners of the nation, that expansion hasn't kept pace with speed of connectivity. The supply has been abysmal compared to India's insatiable appetite for 4G data, fuelled by a tsunami of affordable Android phones.

Call drops and network unavailability are issues that even the Prime Minister expressed concern over last year, and prompted TRAI to define quality of service norms with penalties for excessive call drops by service providers, but nothing has changed. India's 4G network remains congested and inefficient, and we continue to suffer.

Will 5G save us from 4G's woes?

Throw in the promise of 5G into this mess, and you start to wonder if 4G's inadequacies can be truly fixed by 5G? The answer to that is complicated, to be honest.

reuters

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This year promises to be full of 5G phone announcements, which means everyone who's in the phone business and serious about keeping appearances will announce a 5G-ready phone -- whatever that entails. But with no network, they'll mostly be useless.

TRAI has invited Huawei, Samsung, and other companies to conduct 5G trials in India this year. But these are only trials, in other words laboratory experiments. The final specifications of 5G don't get finalized until late this year. After which, 5G rollouts will start around the world in countries like South Korea, Japan, and US only from 2020 onwards. Full blown 5G isn't expected to hit Indian airwaves until at least 2021, which is a very optimistic forecast. That's still two years away at best.

RS Sharma, TRAI Chairman, has warned that India won't be a frontrunner in 5G deployment unless nation's fibre connectivity infrastructure is bolstered quickly. It's inadequate as it is, and improvement won't happen unless massive investments are done.

India has only 22% of mobile towers connected by fibre, while 78% are purely wireless -- without a fibre backbone. RS Sharma claims that China has 80% network connectivity over fibre and the rest 20% through wireless.

Reuters

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Oh boy! This means salvation from 5G isn't coming anytime soon. For the time being, we are all stuck in our personal 4G data hell, unless telecom operators ramp up capacity exponentially in the near future -- by that I mean tomorrow, please. And that's easier said than done.

So as 2019 progresses, you will see and hear a lot of buzz around 5G -- and for good reason. It would be foolish not to get excited over 5G and what it beckons. But here in India, as you struggle to browse the Internet over your phone on 4G, just remember to temper that excitement with a pinch of reality. And remember to not get too carried away.