The consumers may face a drop in the mobile broadband services quality in the months to come. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) may face delays of around 3-to-6 months in their 4G network expansions, if the global shortage of semiconductors and component supply chain challenges persist.
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As per experts and analysts, the critical 4G network gears like routers, base stations and backhaul infrastructure equipment, typically, use semiconductors and a shortage may potentially disrupt their near-term availability, delaying capacity expansion plans which will result into network congestion.
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āIf the global chips shortage continues, there could be potential disruptions in availability of 4G network gear that use semiconductors, which in turn, could delay gear procurements by telcos and slow down network deployments, expansions,ā Nitin Soni, Senior Director at global ratings agency, Fitch, said news source.
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He added that any potential delays in 4G networks-related capex spends by telcos "due a prolonged shortage of semiconductors would impact network capacity and coverage quality amid heavy data consumptionā.
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Global vendors like Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE supply networks to Bharti Airtel and Vi while Samsung is the sole supplier to Reliance Jio.
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Global vendors like Ericsson expect the chip shortage to continue into next year and concede that āit may eventually be impacted as the industry in wholeā if the current semiconductor market conditions prevail long-term.
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The Swedish gear maker, though, indicated that its local production unit in Pune, which manufactures both 4G and 5G network equipment, is well stocked with inventory to meet telco client needs in India as it had taken proactive action to manage potential supply chain hiccups.
