Translate

Thursday, February 23, 2023

The Death Knell for 4G Phones



Angolan operator Unitel is offering discounts of up to 67% on selected 4G mobile phones until 28 February. Qualifying devices include 4G phones from Alcatel, ZTE, Nokia, Sunmax, and the Samsung Galaxy A2 Core, Galaxy A12, Galaxy S20 FE or Galaxy Z Flip 3.

With this very steep discount of 4G smartphones, it appears likely that Unitel is trying to liquidate its remaining 4G smartphone inventory to make room for more 5G devices. Further, this move signals that Unitel is seeing very limited demand domestically for 4G phones.

Yet beyond this specific insight regarding this Angolan operator, this decision also has implications for the global market as well. Mobile providers in developed economies typically view areas like Angola as markets to resell outdated devices. If these areas have become firmly focused on 5G, then this indicates that there is essentially no remaining demand anywhere.

The bottom line: if a consumer is going to buy a new phone, they are going to demand that it is a 5G device. This is likely the case even in markets where 5G infrastructure is nascent, since 5G phones are backward-compatible with 4G networks.

Tarifica is a global SaaS company and a market leader in the real-time collection, analysis and delivery of telecom plan and pricing data worldwide. Through a mix of AI, modeling and market expertise, Tarifica tracks hundreds of thousands of plan and pricing data points daily. No other company tracks more. Tarifica's mission is to continuously convert data into the dynamic intelligence that fuels opportunities for its clients, the world's leading operators, regulators and consultants.

Learn more about Tarifica at www.tarifica.com 

No comments:

Post a Comment