Consumers upbeat on 4G rollout

Sales of smartphones supporting 4G have crossed nine million units in Sept quarter - a whopping 1,000% jump over the sale in the year-ago period

Telecom companies have not rolled out long-term evolution (LTE), commonly known as 4G, throughout India yet. But mobile handset buyers are preparing well in advance. While 4G telecom service is offered by a single service provider in the country, sales of smartphones supporting 4G have crossed nine million units in the September quarter - a whopping 1,000 per cent jump over the sale in the year-ago period.

Currently, Bharti Airtel offers 4G data service in 296 towns across India. While Vodafone and Idea are expected to launch 4G service by next year, Aircel offers the service for its enterprise customers only. However, according to analysts, the recent buzz around the launch of 4G service by Reliance Jio and others have increased interest among handset buyers.

"The phenomenon growth in demand for LTE (enabled) handsets in recent months is a clear indication that people are now anticipating big launches such as Reliance Jio's," an industry executive said.

According to telecom research firm CyberMedia Research (CMR), during the December 2014 quarter, sale of 4G-enabled smartphones were at one million levels. In September 2015 quarter, at least nine million (or one out of every three smartphones) such handsets have been shipped in the country. Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst, telecom, CMR, said, "In high-tech product categories like smartphones, consumers always prefer to maximise their value on the money spent by purchasing what's latest. Hence, preference for 4G phones."

"Data show 15 million handsets are already in the market, even before the major service providers entered the sphere," the industry executive cited above added.

"This is propelled by pricing efforts by some vendors and some exciting marketing programmes, especially on the online platforms," said Kawoosa.

During the pre-festive season discounted sale, the country's largest e-commerce player Flipkart sold some 400,000, or 80 per cent, of the total 4G smartphones out of its total sale of 500,000 handsets. And with more such discounted pricing in offing with the entry of Reliance Jio, which reportedly promised LTE handsets priced below Rs 4,000, sales of such phones are expected to go up further. CMR estimates sales of 4G devices to exceed 11 million per quarter by end- 2015.