With better speeds of 4G or LTE, there is going to be more video consumption. It will expand market of films and newspapers and TV shows. Telecom and broadband operaters will enter the media market. Apart from M & E, 4G will affect health care, education and banking. In JiO play, there are 160 standard definition TV channels and 40 high definition ones. All print media are being signed up. Network 18 channels owned by Relience will be avaiable. There are apps for other channels. Apart from one or two TV screen homes, India can have many more TV screens on digital devices. Film viewing is data heavy viewing. A standard definition film takes anything from 0.3 to 0.7 gigabytes of data and a high definition one up to 1.5. If 4G removes bandwidth and price constraints, the opportunities are huge. Most 4G services are available between Rs. 80 to Rs. 125 per gigabyte of data. These prices under competitive pressure could drop further to Rs. 10 to Rs. 50 per gigabyte. This fall will drive content consumption of films and TV shows.

Many are skeptical about the higher consumption of video on wireless. Abroad, only 7 per cent of Nefflix consumption is on wireless. The real consumption remains wireless and traditional. Users, whenever possible, prefer a big screen, rather the biggest screen to see video and TV. As signal quality goes up, the large screen experience matters more. It means an operator with a fixed line into the home, Wi-Fi and 4G could be a big winner.

There are issues for which we will get answers when the big five networks continue their operations for a couple of years. These operators are JiO, Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel and Idea. The 3G story has not unfolded satisfactorily. Networks are congested. Instead of the promised 50 Mbps speed, the real speed is just 25 Mbpas. When on move, it reduces to 10 Mbps. In travel, it is just 5 Mbps.The same should not be repeated with 4G, with talks of 5G sometime later. Is it correct for India to depen wholly on wireless ? Elsewhere, the connections are wired.