Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation by Jio Can Improve Smartphone Battery Life upto 40%

Earlier in a post, I shared the fact that IEEE reported that 5G-NR is more energy efficient than LTE, and 5G-NSA might use higher levels of energy to power 5G networks with 4G infrastructure, as two different forms of cellular technology massively increases power consumption in a network. Now Jio Platforms, the largest telecom operator in India, during its Q2 FY25 earnings call, has claimed that their Standalone 5G network can reduce power consumption on end-devices and this may help the smartphones' battery performance by 20-40%. 

5G-SA is energy-efficient, and Jio is taking the efficiency to another level by dynamic band allocations as explained by Kiran Thomas, the president of Reliance Jio Infocomm that Jio's intelligent spectrum allocation system helps conserve device battery life by optimising communication frequencies as Jio’s network integrates a unique mix of spectrum assets and and advanced technical features, including carrier aggregation and standalone (SA) architecture.

It's obvious that Jio, which is offering free 5G data or 5G data at 4G price since the launch of 5G services has lots of users' behavioral data and now AI and machine learning can easily do the required dynamic allocation. 

Depending upon user's need/demand the 5G network will shift in different bandwidths to offer best possible data speed, latency and coverage resulting in seamless but best 5G experience. Presently Jio has 3 bands for 5G - n28/700MHz, n78/3500MHz and n258/26GHz. 5G on 700MHz uses least power, and more power consumption on higher bandwidth (and higher speed). 

Now in India, Jio runs 5G-SA network on 3500/700MHz band while Airtel started with 5G-NSA initially and now use mix of 5G-SA and 5G-NSA in different locations. 

Jio deployed 100-130 MHz of 3.5GHz band to offer 5G-SA services

Airtel and Vi, being incumbent have 2G networks, and now 4G and 5G networks - Vi did not launch 5G commercially though - so it's obvious that they will keep legacy 2G for another 3-5 years. they dumped 3G long back, use that spectrum for 4G - only 3G operator is BSNL. For them 5G roll out has to be easy, at reduced cost - which can be achieved only by opting 5G-NSA network roll out. 5G-NSA has advantages on the operators' side, like easy deployment, reduced cost, fast roll out, pathway to SA-5G.