My COVID Experience (April '20 to Dec '20)

My experience with COVID-19 started back in April, 2020. Before I am writing down my learning of COVID-19, let me address my work - I work as a ICU/CCU doctor. 

1. COVID-19 is REAL. But many of them are asymptomatic, i.e. very low exposure and no disease at all. 

2. COVID-19 has no cure as of now. But the scientists are working on it. 

3. COVID-19 diseases can be classified as asymptomatic, mild, moderate and severe diseases. The severe COVID-19 disease is dangerous and life threatening in most of the patients.   

I have got C19 in November '20, and the smell went off just like switching off the light. On Day 5 from the onset of fever, smell was gone, and restored nearly after 10-11 days partially. I am still not sure my smell got completely recovered. 

The point is if your smell is gone, it is most probably mild to moderate COVID. 

4. Oxygen is the main stay of treatment. You can call it standard care therapy. Ventilators can't save most of the patients, but high flow nasal oxygen @ upto 60L/min is better in my experience. 

Jio in a Hurry to Launch 5G in India - Threat from Satellite Internet?

Country's largest mobile operator Jio is planning to roll out 5G commercially in the second half of 2021, as Mukesh Ambani asked the government to make a policy ready for 5G in the event of India Mobile Congress 2020. But at the same time Sunil Mittal, the chairperson of Airtel, the 2nd largest mobile operator put forth his concerns with underdeveloped 5G ecosystem and exorbitant cost of 5G airwaves as set by GoI. Airtel will not spend money on 5G right now, though they will continue working with their technology and innovation partners for 5G. 

Jio, with tons of cash flow from recent investments across the globe is in a better financial shape and they can't wait to get their hands on 5G airwaves to be the pioneer of 5G in the country. 

Heritage Walk: Serampore (Part 2B)

Continuing Heritage Walk: Serampore ...  

St. Olav's Church/Danish Church

Age: 214 years

Commonly known as Danish Church in the locality, St. Olav's Church was built in Frederiksnagore during the Danish rule by the name of Norway's national Saint Olav. The fund partly came from private subscription in Denmark and Serampore and partly by public grants. Construction was started by Danish governor of Serampore Lt. Olav Ole but he died in 1805, one year before the construction completed i.e. in 1806. The nave was completed in 1806, a year after the decease of Ole Bie, whereas the portico and the bell tower were completed in 1821.

Captain Krefting, successor of Ole completed the remaining work with the help from Englishmen John Chambers and Robert Armstrong. The Church has been used by the local congregation ever since. The church was Lutheran, for Serampore's Protestant citizens. As there was a small number of resident Danes, the services were performed by the English Baptist missionaries and never by any Danish priest.

Heritage Walk: Serampore, Hooghly (Part 2A)

Continuing Heritage Walk: Serampore

Unique Lodge 

130-year old family home of the Bhattacharya family. 

Pandit Kashinath Bhattacharya came to Serampore from Debipur, another village town of Hooghly on the request of Vidyasagar to teach Sanskrit. He settled in Dey St, but he died untimely. His son, Durga Prasanna became a building contractor and built this ancestral home for his family at 21 Dey Street. He was very fancy at his time, he founded a zoo inspired from Raja Rajendra Mullick's Marble Palace & the zoo. He also has a good number of dogs and won several trophies in the Dog Shows. 

Heritage Walk: Serampore, Hooghly (Part 2)

Continuing the Heritage Walk across the Serampore... Check first part of Serampore tour here.

As we have seen most of the Mahesh, we are now heading towards Dey Street and the northern part of the city. 

If you think about the historical timeline of Serampore, it can be divided into phases - before European colonization (before 1755), Danish colonization and associated Bengali culture (1755-1845), British colonization and industrialization (1845-1947) and post independence era (after 1947). Thanks to our governmental carelessness, the post independence era was mostly insignificant in all terms - neither the heritages were taken care of, nor new heritage was built up - Serampore, though one of the largest town of Hooghly district turned into a satellite town of Calcutta. 

Heritage Walk: Serampore, Hooghly (Part 1)

Serampore (Srirampur/শ্রীরামপুর) is a busy town of Hooghly district, approx. 25 km north to Kolkata, the capital city of West Bengal. Today Serampore looks like just another city of Bengal, full of high rises, crowd, narrow lanes, garbages etc,  but it has a rich colonial history, and that's not entirely British. Serampore was a trading post for the Danes (i.e. people from Denmark) during 1755 to 1845.

The Danish came to this area in 1676 but Danish colony was started from Gondalpara in 1698, which was at the south east corner of French territory of Chandannager. This place was known as Dinermardanga (দিনেমারডাঙ্গা). With the help from the French the Danes came to Serampore in 1755 with a farman from Nawab Alivardi Khan (born 1671, regent 1740-1756) of Bengal in exchange of Rs 1,50,000 or more. It was just a trading post back then under the Danish Asiatic Company. For a note, the Danes came to India in 1618 and in 1820 they founded their first trading post at Tranquebar (now known as Tharangambadi), ~120 Km south of Puducherry. 

Macro Photography with Smartphones - Guide for First Timers

Macro photography is my new love. Macro photos by all means are very close up - be it insects or flowers or anything else. It opens up a new boundary of the way you look into around you.  

Lately mobile macros are getting popular as smartphones are incorporated with four back cameras - primary, wide angle, telephoto and macro. Well macro photos taken by a smartphone's dedicated macro camera are not that great because their sensors are either just 2 megapixel or 5 megapixel. Out of them Poco has an interesting phone - X2 Pro which has telephoto macro. Unfortunately Poco X2 Pro was not launched in India. 

Now I own an OnePlus 6 bought in 2018. The 12 MP back shooter is above average and take decent photos, I am satisfied. The second back camera is actually offers the depth sensor - i.e. to take portrait shots with background blaring. 

Open RAN Getting Traction for 5G Roll out & 5G Scenario in India

Jio is planning for a 5G juggarnaut, as the digicom arm of Reliance Industries wants to make 5G rollout of its own, not depending on existing tele-equipment majors like Nokia, Cisco, Samsung, Ericsson. Jio has agreement with Samsung for 4G roll out, and the deal will continue but Jio will embrace indigenous 5G tech.  

Jio took a stand not to work with Chinese vendors like ZTE, Huawei. Jio already has been praised by American politicians for no-China mode, and Jio received huge funding from America including tech major Google, Intel, Qualcomm and social giant Facebook. American PE firm Silver Lake has invested heavily into Jio and Reliance Retail. And many experts believe American PE firms will invest heavily into Reliance Retail, just like they did into Jio - already KKR seems interested in Reliance Retail as per media reports.

Just for an off-topic, Reliance Retail will take on Amazon India and Walmart backed Flipkart in the e-commerce field. And Reliance Retail would be targeting brick-and-mortar retail at the strongest way, as they acquired Future Group (Big Bazaar brand) for Rs 24,713 crore.

Vodafone Idea Unveils New Brand Identity - 'Vi'

Vodafone Idea Ltd, the merged entity of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular has announced a new brand identity, Vi (pronounced as We). The announcement came after the company got relief by Supreme Court order to pay AGR dues in next 10 years. 

Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read said, "As the integration of two businesses is now complete, it’s time for a fresh start. That's why we believe that now is the perfect time to launch Vi, one company which provides the strength of Vodafone India and Idea.” It should be noted that merger was done in 2018, midst of market consolidation due to predator pricing by Reliance Jio. 

There was some recent market rumor that US tele major Verizon or e-Commerce giant Amazon may look for stake buy in VIL, but the company denied such reports. However the company has approved Rs 25,000 cr fundraising plan. Analysts believe it's not a plan for a long run, may be just for 12-18 months, as the company is debt ridden of nearly Rs 1.7 lakh crore.

Google Invests in Jio Platforms to Make Affordable 4G & 5G Phones

For Google, India is a great market for the company. Since 2015, when India born Sunchar Pichai became the CEO of Alphabet Inc, the holding company of  Google product family the company introduced several products/projects for India. Most important was Google backed WiFi hotspots in rail stations of the country under Google Station branding. Recently Google left the project as 4G based internet goes mainstream.

However Google has did its biggest move in India as the company is going to invest Rs 33,737 crore in Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries' telecom and digital arm Jio Platforms announced during latest AGM meet of RIL. The investment translates into 7.7% stake sale of Jio Platforms to Google. The strategic investment by Google would be directed to making affordable, entry level 4G (and in future 5G) Android smartphones to support device ecosystem for Jio's indigenous 5G technology. 

The Google-Jio handsake is win-win for all - both companies, consumers and Indian government. It can usher 'Make in India' initiative of Govt of India. Reliance can create stronger ecosystem for its own digital platform and as 5G goes mainstream with cheap devices entry barrier will be demolished, Google backed Android ecosystem will be stronger. 

Intel and Qualcomm Infuse Strategic Investments in Jio

In the midst of pandemic, lockdown, and financial teardown, India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani owned Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries becomes top tech company to invest. After the announcement of Facebook's investment in Jio in end of April '20, six American PE investors (SilverLake, Vista, General Atlantic, KKR, TPG and L Catterton), and three companies of Saudi Arabia and UAE would invest in Jio Platforms til middle of June '20.

Around a week back, on June 24th, Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Facebook’s proposed investment in Jio Platforms via its newly formed subsidiary Jaadhu Holdings LLC.

Airtel is Raising Funds from Overseas, May Bid for OneWeb, Tower Co, Meger Delayed

For last few posts by me here are all regarding Jio and its fundraising. Let get back to Jio's most commendable competitor - yes, that's Airtel. The rivalry on telecom turf between Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal is pretty old. And Ambani's comeback to Indian telecom was a supercharged show. But Airtel is not just sitting idle, and they are fighting back - ARPU is growing, and stock market value is increasing. But incumbents Airtel and Vodafone Idea both are now stuck by huge AGR dues as directed by Supreme Court. 

I will share all latest development in Airtel in this post. 

After Jio started its stake sale, there was market rumor that Google may invest in Vodafone Idea, while Amazon may invest in Airtel. However none came true so far. 

List of Pice Hotels of Kolkata

This post was initially just a list of some of the popular pice hotels of the city, collected over facebook or internet search. Later I have understood that there are several ones, many without a name or signboard across the city and suburbs catering hundreds of people with better Bengali lunches! 

The list is neither exclusive nor exhaustive. 

The Pice Hotels are a part of culture in Kolkata, which is pretty old. During the British era, many people worked at Kolkata, the-then capital of British ruled India and they were coming from far away places. They were staying at the messes across the city and to serve them food at a minimal cost the pice hotels started off. The name 'Pice' originated from what or how - it's still controversial. Many says as 1 paisa converted into Pice. Many says Pice means you have to pay for every piece of food i.e. from the glass to the plate. 

Is Jio Really Free from Any Chinese Components?

I would like to point out regarding Jio's stand on not using Chinese components. In February RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani told to US Prez D. Trump that Jio is the only operator in the world, which do not use a single Chinese component. Trump is found to be happy, and American companies invested in Jio heavily. 

What I want to say, Jio's core technology providers are not Chinese, but end-user devices like JioFi devices are coming from China. Jio is also probably using the SIM cards imported from China. 

Jio rolled out LTE with equipments solely from Samsung, which is a South Korean company. Inside their WiFi services, there is Rukus Wireless, Cisco and Mojos Network. 

Jio's WiFi Networks being Powered by Mojo

Jio since its begining is pushing its WiFi offering - the JioNet. Jio's public WiFi helps them to offload LTE data, and clutter off the network, also helps to serve into offices, educational institutes i.e. enterprise segment. 

Interestingly Jio expressed that the company is considering WiFi not as simple as an additional services (as during 2G period), rather it is a partner technology with Jio's pure play LTE based mobility strategy. Jio is now nearly having 2,00,000 hotspots running across the country. Jio and other Indian carriers have already launched Voice over LTE and VoWiFi technology - so offloading voice over WiFi is also in their strategy to overcome mobile signal coverage issues. WiFi calling is quite successful as Airtel and Jio saw the market response. However limited handsets support VoWiFi as of now. 


Also offering WiFi means better utilization of Jio's existing Fiber network. 

Reliance Jio Goes Debt-free, Plans to Bring Made-in-India 5G Solutions

Jio's stake sale is over, as the view expressed by investment firm JP Morgan. Starting from April 21st, Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), the telecom and digital arm of Reliance Industries, owned by richest Indian Mukesh Ambani has started its stake sale. Ambani has set a target to make Reliance net debt free by March 31, 2021, and he achieved that target much before - 3 quarter early. Therefore it is expected that Jio, who already sold nearly one fourth of the company to foreign investors, will not go further. 

A tweet from Reliance Jio also hints to that, as the table summerizes all fund received into Jio. (table below)

Just like NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made rockets, India's JPL or simply Jio has shown its growth like a rocket. It began from a scratch and developed as a greenfield pure 4G operator, backed by several app based ecosystem. 

[PR] Mumbai Municipality to Deploy Drone for Disinfection

Embassy Services in collaboration with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) launched Aerial Disinfection Drone by Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray

Embassy Services Pvt. Ltd. (ESPL) in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) launched the first of its kind Drone Disinfection Drive in Worli, Mumbai on the 22nd of June. The significant event was launched by Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray and the honorable Mayor Kishori Pednekar amongst other dignitaries. This method was used for the disinfection of mosquito breeding grounds and other vector-borne diseases in areas that are usually inaccessible. These drones can fly over 500m high for a period of 12 hours while carrying over 15 liters of disinfectant; they can cover an area of over 50 acres in a single day. This innovation is a much-needed thorough solution for the post-pandemic world.  

Extended Stake Sale: Jio Got Five More Investments

Reliance Jio continues its stake selling spree. The sale extends from April to May, now to June of 2020. 

The June 2020 phase is full of investors from UAE and United States, the list includes Mubadala Investment Company (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Abu Dhabi Investment Fund (ADIF) and American PE firms, TPG (based at Greenwich, Connecticut) and L Catterton (Texas based). Already invested, Silver Lake is also investing more money in Jio Platforms Ltd in June.

Date	Company	Investment	Stake acquired
April 21	Facebook	Rs 43, 574 Cr	9.9%
May 4	SilverLake	Rs 5,655.75 Cr	1.15%
May 8	Vista Equity	Rs 11,367 Cr	2.32%
May 17	General Altantic Partners	Rs 6598.38 Cr	1.34%
May 22	KKR & Co.	Rs 11,367 Cr	2.32%
June 4	Mubadala Investment Co	Rs 9,093.60 Cr	1.85%
June 7	Abu Dhabi Investment Fund (ADIF)	Rs 5683.50 Cr	1.16%
June 5	SilverLake	Rs 4,546.80 Cr	0.93%
June 13	TPG	Rs 4,546.80 Cr	0.93%
June 13	L Catterton	Rs1,894.50 Cr	0.39%

Jio in a Fundraising Mode, Gets investment 4th & 5th ones from GA & KKR

Mukesh Ambani is unstoppable to bring one after another investment for his dream project, Jio to 'further propel Jio's vision of enabling a digital society for India'. In a month Jio Platforms fetched a hopping total of 78,562 crore rupees of investment from different American companies including social giant Facebook. 

Investment from Facebook, SilverLake and Vista Equity has already been published on my earlier post. Recent investments in Jio would be coming from General Atlantic Partners and KKR ＆ Co. Both companies are headquartered in New York.

General Atlantic is one of the early investor in Uber and Airbnb. Definitely they are looking towards change in India's digital ecosystem. 

Airtel is Concentrating into Betterment of Networks & Enterprise Business

As Jio is getting invested from overseas, to be debt-free and being financially prepared for 5G, Bharti Airtel is not standing idle, they are investing on networks as well as future networks. For Airtel 4G expansion and being 5G ready is crucial, as Airtel is all set to phase out 3G. As their 4G network is not omnipresence, they can't shut down 2G services anytime soon.

So Airtel has to increase 4G footprint, significantly in rural areas. Also in urban areas their capacity to handle wireless data is to be increased multifold in the time of Covid-19 due to lockdown as people are working from home.

Jio is Getting More Investments from America

Amidst lockdown India's richest man and his son, Mukesh Ambani and Akash Ambani is busy with their video conferences as they are drawing investment from overseas one after another. 

On April 21, 2020 Facebook announced Rs 43,574 crore investment into Jio Platforms, and in two weeks Jio got two more investments from America. 

Institutes & Pharma Co Running a Race to Deliver COVID-19 Vaccine

Elisa Granato, Molecular Microbiologist of University of Oxford
was the first volunteer in the Oxford vaccine trial for COVID-19

As I joined my medical career in 2007, there was a different drug practice, and now it has changed a lot. My pharma textbook had mere 10 sentences on carbapenems but they became ubiquitous in present critical care units. For last 5 years (atleast) I saw a good number of drugs being approved by FDA, many of them are monoclonal antibodies (mab) for autoimmune diseases or for cancer treatment. I am not sure about their efficacy but I know these are not cheap! 

However as 2020 saw a pandemic of COVID-19 by beta coronavirus, I can see a race to deliver potential vaccine candidate to humankind is already started by educational institutes as well as pharma companies. 

Facebook Invests in Jio Platforms - Market to be Rattled?

At the end of April, 2020 Facebook announced it will invest Rs 43,574 crore ($ 5.6 billion) in Jio Platforms Ltd for 9.9% stake. This transaction marks largest foreign direct investment for a minority investment in India. Check Facebook announcement on their official post. During Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, Ambani backed RIL did a great job which could indirectly help India's economy. 

The deal indicates Mark Zuckerberg, the man behind Facebook wants a pie in the digital marketplace of India. Because on the official post, there is a picture saying about a 50 year old company who is using Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to reach new customers. 

For Facebook, Jio could be their protector in India, as Fb has regulatory issues back in 2016 with its Free Basics programs. Also Zuckerberg wants to enter e-commerce space, but Jeff Bezos owned Amazon holds lion's share in its domestic market. China could not be an option for Facebook where investment is tricky, competition with similar local offerings would be fierce, and state regulations are so strict and unethical at point. India is best option for Mark, as Indians are already heavily using his products - Fb, Insta and WApp. Known customers could give him better applause. 

Drugs Against CoViD-19

A BETTER POST CAN BE FOUND HERE

Til August 31st, 2020 there is no cure drug against Covid-19. Vaccines could be best to tackle this viral disease. I wrote down this post on April 24th, and I am actively updating this post. 

 

• Hydroxy-chloroquine (HCQS)

This old antimalarial and DMARD drug saw massive support from ICMR and US President Trump. People started taking it as prophylaxis without any proven benefit in prophylaxis. Trials in China also showed no proven benefit i.e. faster recovery with HCQS. In vitro studies showed that HCQS kills the virus. 

COVID-19 Updates - Virus Origin Story & Global and Indian Lockdown

Dunlop More, Kolkata during Lockdown
Photo source: internet/unknown

COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019) is a spectrum of diseases (of which worst case scenario is pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome/ARDS) caused by novel corona virus/severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-Cov2). As it turned into pandemic declared by WHO on March 11, 2020 (second after Swine Flu pandemic in 2009), it was first detected in Wuhan city of Hubei district of China by end of November 2019, and like many developing (and communist) countries, China ignored the early signs of epidemic and WHO was allowed for surveillance on January 8, 2020. 

Soon the COVID-19 started detecting in several other countries. So far worst hit countries are Italy, Spain, France, UK and USA. China is reporting negligible no. of new cases after March 15. 

Initially there were few conspiracy theories landed up, as SARS-CoV2 is a bioweapon made by China. However bioweapons like Anthrax does possess features like high infectivity, high virulence, non-availability of vaccines, and availability of an effective and efficient delivery system. That does not go with SARS-Cov2. But many say that China saw this outbreak back in August as they recovered so fast. And China did not inform it to the world, as the world suffers til date due to Covid-19. 

Bring Back 'Tab Menu' on Opera

In the middle of March, 2020 one of the Opera desktop update removed 'Tab menu' ['Show Closed Tab' on Vivaldi] from the left corner of the browser. It is pretty useful feature of Opera, as from here you can get the list of recently closed tabs. Note the plural - tabs! Yes you can get last 10+ tabs as list, which are closed recently.

Now this feature can be found as Menu > History > Recently Closed

With the removal of 'Tab menu' Opera brings 'Search in tabs' - that is useful if you open more than 50 tabs at once. You can't search the contents of the tabs from here.

Copy this link to address bar and ENTER : opera://flags/#search-in-open-tabs

Change Default to Disabled and you will get back old Tab Menu after the relaunch.

Global Lockdown due to Corona Virus (Cov-19) Outbreak

The world is not dominated by humans(as apparently seemed to be), that is proved again. We are now under attack by novel corona virus 2 (nCoV-2). Originated from Wuhan city of China by the end of November 2019, nCoV-2 is similar to SARS and MERS outbreak by coronavirus. 

On March 11, WHO declared this outbreak as pandemic. Soon the Covid-19 started detecting in several other countries. So far worst hit countries are Italy, Spain, France, UK and USA. 

India Got Two 5G Supported Smartphones in February 2020: Will You Buy it?

5G spectrum auction in India is yet to be a  reality but smartphone makers have started launching 5G/NR supported Android smartphone. Standing at 1st of March, 2020 we have iQoo 3 (12G/256G at Rs 44990) and realme X50 pro 5G (6G/128G at Rs 37999 and so on). 

Just get back to 2012, Airtel had launched 4G - it was limited to WiFi pocket routers. Even after 3 years when Jio started persuing its 4G dream, they had to create their own device ecosystem (LYF phones, JioFi and JioPhones). Embracing 4G/LTE was not easy. Operators did have to wait until 4G ecosystem evolved and became cheap for mass adaption. The Chinese companies like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo took the opportunity and became the market leaders. That opportunity was lost by Indian handset manufacturers and their hard earned market was out of grip. 


Interestingly we have no 5G rollout in India right now and already two 5G phones are commercially launched by two relatively new companies making 5G as a USP for their flagship phones. It should be noted that companies have launched first of 5G phones under their sub brands - Realme with Oppo in background, while iQoo is a sub brand of Vivo. In few days Samsung, One Plus, Xiaomi, Asus and others will also launch 5G supported phones. 

But spending atleast Rs 5k - 12k extra for a technology not available in country does not make sense (note iQoo 3 has 2 variants. 4G & 5G phones have Rs 8k price difference, while all Realme x50 pro are 5G supported). First 5G dates are yet to be confirmed in the country as there is no deadline for 5G spectrum auction and cash deprived operators are not sure to spend money on a developing tech. Indian government will charge hefty for 5G spectrum, and at this moment only Jio is in the position to buy it. 

BSNL is still waiting for pan India 4G spectrum, and I doubt they will be given any 5G spectrum before the auction and the state own PSU may not accept it even if they were given as they also have to pay as per auction price. 

Secondly 5G radio are on higher bandwidth (therefore lesser penetration) and a population densed country like India may not take advantage of it unless operators put numerous base stations at one go (more than 10,000 BTS in every metro city). So you may not see sudden increase of speed with 5G like we saw during migration from 3G to 4G. Also unless you have many smart devices there will be no major use of 5G enabled Internet of Things (IoT). 

Thirdly we don't know anything about 5G spectrums in India. But these two smartphones have different 5G bandwidth support. iQoo 3 supports NR N41/N77/N78 while realme X50 pro 5G supports 5G NR N1/N41/N78/N79. N1 stands for 2100 MHz, N41 for 2500 MHz, N77 for 3700 MHz, N78 for 3500 MHz, N79 for 4700 MHz. All these bands are on FR 1 (frequency range 1). These phones do not support any of FR 2 bands of milimeter range (mmWave, between 24 - 100 GHz). 

In short 5G is being developed and even though 5G is getting global traction by the carriers it needs finetuning. As per GSMA report 5G adoption will be slower, expecting only 15% 5G users by 2025. However after the recent COVID-19 outbreak it could slower than expected. 

On my personal note, 5G will not be commercially available in India on mass scale before 2023. Before that global 5G market should be mature enough by infrastructure wise and ecosystem wise (like AI & IoT).

So the answer to the question of buying 5G phone right now by spending Rs 35k+ is NO. 

Why there is a price difference between 4G and 5G phones despite both having same SoC?

As we can see, Realme has given 5G support on all of its X50 Pro smartphones. But iQoo has same model with 4G and 5G variation with same Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset. The price difference is due to addition of 5G modem on top of Snapdragon 865. Though it's not sure which of 5G modem added on these two smartphones, I expect it could be X55 modem which supports peak 5G speed at 7.5 Gbps, peak LTE speed at 2.5 Gbps and 5G Dual SIM support

Read more about 5G modems - Road to 5G: 4G/4.9G/5G Modems