The uptake of 4G services in the rural areas is steadily increasing as out of the total 238 million 4G subscribers in India, 83 million are from rural areas.
This means one out of three 4G subscribers in the country is from the rural territory, according to a report from research firm Cyber Media.
By 2020, 35% of the 4G subscribers would be using a feature phone, taking the overall 4G subscriber count to 432 million in India.
Reliance Jio, the latest entrant in the telecom space, disrupted the market with its 4G services. At the end of December 2017, Jio had the highest number of 4G subscribers at 160 million. However, this also forced incumbents like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea to ramp up their technology and subsequently investments in 4G networks.
“Though laggards, incumbents have managed to increase their 4G subscriber base 3.8 times more than the disruptor operator Jio during 2017. This could be attributed to incumbents aligning their 4G offering to that of Jio in terms of price as well as content,” said Faisal Kawoosa, head – new initiatives, Cyber Media Research.
Incumbent operators have focused on rural markets which contributed to their growth in 4G. “The early adaptors were leveraged by Jio primarily in the urban space and as incumbent operators got ready with their 4G in full scale, they focused on rural markets to look for growth,” he said.
The report said 26% rural subscribers using Jio 4G, incumbents had 53% of their 4G subscribers in the rural market.
Going forward, CMR expects that JioPhone shall play a critical role in increasing the penetration of Jio 4G services in rural India.
According to CMR estimates, India will have 300 million 4G subscribers by the end of 2018, of which 58 million will be using a 4G feature phone. The rest 81% of the subscribers will be using 4G over a smartphone, including the lower configuration ones based on Android Oreo Go.
Reliance Jio, though, in 2017 has only managed to increase its subscriber base by 122% or 88 million, against 457% or 64 million subscribers by the incumbent mobile operators, the report said.
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- By 2020, 35% of the 4G subscribers would be using a feature phone
- This would take the overall 4G subscriber count to 432 million in the country
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