Reliance Jio Infocomm is likely to speed up its 5G services rollout by the second-half of calendar 2020 to stop rivals Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel from gaining scale on the 4G front and benefitting from any 4G-led data monetisation, SBICap Securities has said.Jio’s early 5G move, it said, is likely to be driven by the mega capital raise plans recently announced by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel towards boosting 4G capacity.Rajiv Sharma, co-head of research at SBICap Securities, expects “the 5G spectrum auction to happen by January 2020”.Jio has been the only telco keen on buying 5G airwaves at the prices recommended by the telecom regulator and has backed an early sale. Bharti Airtel, on the contrary, has sought a cut in the price of some sub-GHz bands and is averse to an early 5G spectrum sale. Vodafone Idea too has suggested the 5G spectrum sale be pushed back to next year.Sharma sees “Jio making a decisive 5G upgrade next year to make competition from Airtel and VIL on the 4G front irrelevant, in its bid to maintain leadership on the fast broadband technology, thought and revenue market share fronts”.Since Bharti Airtel and VIL are seen raising as much as Rs 50,000 crore from their planned rights issues and imminent (tower) asset sales, both incumbents are expected to narrow the gap with Jio on 4G services front in all key urban markets.“Jio’s early move to 5G is inevitable to sustain market share gains, and we see it selectively deploying this nextgen wireless broadband technology by the second half of 2020,” Sharma told ET.Experts believe the fund-raise and balance sheet repair by Airtel and VIL is not good news for Jio, especially if both incumbents put all the cash raised in 4G.“If most funds raised by VIL and Airtel is deployed in expanding 4G capacity, they could together claim 425 million subscribers, sufficient enough to upgrade all their existing 2G users to 4G, which would make it tough for Jio to gain more market share, post 9-12 months,” said Sharma.SBICap Securities also expects Jio to “accelerate its home broadband deployments in urban centres” and leveraging its cable TV investments.