High price, migration to 5G from 2G/4G
New Delhi: High price of 5G airwaves in India, willingness of users to migrate from 2G/4G to 5G and the capital expenditure that telecom companies will incur to deploy full-scale commercial 5G network are some of the unknown variables that need to be addressed before successful implementation of the next-gen technology, India Ratings and Research ( Ind-Ra ) said. “The reserve prices for 5G auctions are too high. Although the 5G auctions are not yet announced, the reserve price could yield a return on capital employed of only 7%,” the ratings firm said in a note on Wednesday after the government gave its nod on commencing 5G trials. Secondly, the number of users willing to switch to 5G from 4G/ 2G and the incremental average revenue per user (ARPU) that they are willing to pay need to be watched out for. “With the current ARPU ranging between INR121-166/user/month, and more than 350 million subscribers still using voice only/ 2G services with si...