With prices of 3G enabled mobile handsets falling coupled with availability of more spectrum in the segment, India is likely to witness a data explosion which hitherto contributes only 10 per cent of the revenue, a top Ericsson official has said.
“That's the big opportunity here. 10 per cent of revenue on average is from data, 90 per cent is still voice. I think there's a big opportunity there for data”, Head of Region India, Ericsson, Chris Houghton said.
“I also see that the prices of 3G enabled smartphones are consistently falling which means that they are more available to people. We're going to have a data explosion in India without question,” Houghton told news agency here recently. Earlier only 5 Megahertz (MHz) was available on 3G for operators to use and now more spectrum is there, he said.
“I come from markets where it is 20 MHz. The scarcity of spectrum was the cause (for less data usage). More spectrum has been made available just recently,” he added.On asked about 4G (or long Term Evolution/lTE) services, he said the technology will play its part but in the short term it is expected to be 3G technology only.“In the short term it will probably be 3G for the masses as most people will be on 3G, but 4G will definitely play its part because spectrum will be available and hence technology will be available.“We have China, US, Japan and Korea investing in 4G and when you get the highly populous countries investing then the chip prices of the lTE enabled devices fall.”