India sees fastest 5G rollout ever as telcos hit targets

India's top two telcos, Jio and Airtel, have met the minimum rollout obligations for 5G services in all 22 circles in the country.

Gagandeep Kaur, Contributing Editor

August 15, 2023

1 Min Read
India sees fastest 5G rollout ever as telcos hit targets
Jio's 5G rollout in India has been one of the quickest ever.(Source: Reuters/Alamy Stock Photo)

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, India's two biggest telcos, say they have hit minimum 5G rollout targets for year one across all 22 service areas (or circles) in the country.

The telcos were allocated spectrum a year ago, on August 17, 2022. Since then, they have deployed 308,466 5G basestations, as of July 30, 2023, according to data shared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). India's government calls it the fastest rollout of 5G services anywhere in the world.

Both telcos acquired spectrum in the 3300–3600MHz and 26GHz frequency bands, with Jio also buying licenses for 700MHz. The two operators launched 5G services in October last year and have been expanding coverage since then.

Late starter

But Vodafone Idea, India's number-three player, has not met the rollout obligations attached to licenses. Indeed, it is yet even to launch a commercial 5G service.

It bought 850MHz of spectrum in the 3300MHz frequency band for 17 circles along with 5,350MHz of 26GHz spectrum for 16. It has got as far as launching 5G services in Delhi and Pune on a trial basis.

While telcos and authorities can congratulate themselves for rolling out a 5G network at superfast speed, the real challenge will be to monetize the 5G investment.

Gopal Vittal, Airtel's CEO, has raised the issue several times at industry events. While 5G has triggered a spike in data consumption, operators still need to raise prices, he said.

Since the launch of 5G services in October 2022, both Airtel and Jio continue to offer unlimited 5G services for free.

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— Gagandeep Kaur, contributing editor, special to Light Reading

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About the Author

Gagandeep Kaur

Contributing Editor

With more than a decade of experience, Gagandeep Kaur Sodhi has worked for the most prominent Indian communications industry publications including Dataquest, Business Standard, The Times of India, and Voice&Data, as well as for Light Reading. Delhi-based Kaur, who has knowledge of and covers a broad range of telecom industry developments, regularly interacts with the senior management of companies in India's telecom sector and has been directly responsible for delegate and speaker acquisition for prominent events such as Mobile Broadband Summit, 4G World India, and Next Generation Packet Transport Network.

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