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“Compared to other countries, 5G<\/a> spectrum price in India is higher, which is 2.6X of Germany, 3.8X of the UK, and 4.4X of South Korea,” Cudahy told ET. He added that while the prices in India were higher, the telecom revenue was lower compared to its peers. “India’s telecoms service revenue is lower: 0.6X of Germany, 0.7X of the UK, and 0.9X of South Korea,” he explained.
Cudahy's remarks come at a time when the Cabinet is yet to take final call on the price of 5G spectrum.
On the 5G use cases<\/a> internationally, Cudahy said the incremental revenues from 5G were very low. “It has not resulted in significant revenue and ARPU (average revenue per user) upside for operators in countries that have launched 5G. One would need to see how 5G B2B use cases evolve and the business models develop.\"
Commenting upon the 5G adoption internationally, he said it was a heterogeneous trend. “In high disposable income societies, 5G is quickly becoming an expectation, rather than a nicety for consumers while government sponsorship\/investment helps ease transition in some price-point-sensitive geographies,” he explained.
However, adding a word of caution he added that the adoption was much slower where the return on investment was unclear for less affluent consumers. “At the enterprise level, demand is tightly tied to clear, committable business cases. This means B2B adoption is essentially all over the map.”
Cudahy downplayed the relevance of Metaverse<\/a>.
\" I don’t think Metaverse<\/a> is going to meet all the hype yet. I think it's going to be a select use case. One can’t replace physical proximity. Proximity matters, and especially early in startups.”
He said gaming was one clearly potential area for B2C use cases. However, use cases in Metaverse would require telecom, hyperscalers, and different industry<\/a> players in retail, healthcare, education and so on to come together to develop use cases.
“I also think that either you are going to see partnerships between hyperscalars and the telcos, or you are going to see outright war between the two. I'm hopeful that will be the former. Telcos have that connection to the individual, which the hyperscalers don't have,” he said.
Dismissing fears around private funds drying up for startups, Cudahy said, “There is a lot of private money out there with PEs and VCs in the US, EU, UK and APAC waiting, salivating for companies with lower multiples for them to get into”. However, he highlighted the funding would be very specific now.