India launched the 5G revolution in October 2022, with the fastest 5G roll-out in the world. Efforts have been made to maintain this momentum by creating robust infrastructure (including fiberisation, small cells, street furniture, in-building solutions and antennas) to support 5G in the country. As of January 2025, the total number of 5G base transceiver stations in India is 467,620, while the country has around 821,667 installed telecom towers as of February 2025. However, pegged at 44 per cent, India’s tower fiberisation rate still has significant scope for improvement.
While the country is still ramping up its 5G infrastructure, it is impressive that it continues to lead the global 5G race. India’s median download speed for 5G stand-alone (SA) (260.71 Mbps) in Q4 2024 surpassed those of China (224.82 Mbps), Japan (254.18 Mbps) and Europe (221.17 Mbps), according to Ookla. The study also highlights that in terms of 5G SA availability, the top three countries during this period were China (80 per cent), India (52 per cent) and the United States (24 per cent).
A lot of initiatives by both public and private sectors and breakthrough technologies are responsible for India’s continued dominance in the 5G space…
Operator updates
Jio played a pivotal role in the country’s 5G journey, creating one of the world’s most advanced 5G network. Having over 130 million 5G customers, currently, Jio is the sole operator in the country, which is offering 5G SA to mobile customers and it has the best 5G SA download speed globally. The company has developed a 100 per cent in-house 5G stack that is fully cloud-native, software-defined and digitally managed. The company also forayed into 5G-based home broadband with its AirFiber offering. Further, in September 2024, Jio collaborated with OnePlus to successfully demonstrate 5G network slicing technology. To take the competition a notch higher, in November 2024, Jio also launched Voice Over New Radio (VoNR) for its 5G users to deliver enhanced voice quality through higher-definition audio and reduced background noise.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel is the second operator to venture into 5G in October 2022 and ever since, it has been making a pivotal contribution to India’s 5G journey. Airtel’s 5G consumer base stood at 90 million in Q1 FY25. In February 2024, Airtel successfully deployed 100,000 massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) 5G radios. In another noteworthy development, Airtel and Nokia successfully tested 5G non-standalone (NSA) Cloud RAN, marking a major milestone in the telco’s cloudification journey. The telco also started refarming its mid-band spectrum to increase 5G services on its 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz bands across the country. It also awarded extension deals for 5G to its vendors – Nokia and Ericsson. More recently, in February 2025, Airtel has announced that it is gearing up to transition to a commercially live, full-scale 5G stand-alone network in due course of time.
The other two operators – Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) are gearing up for their respective 5G debuts. In December 2024, Vi launched its 5G services in 17 licensed service areas (LSAs), using the 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz (N258) spectrum bands. In addition to this soft launch, the operator is collaborating with global vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to supercharge its 5G network. Parallelly, BSNL has a three-pronged strategy on the 5G front. To begin with, BSNL pioneered the country’s first 5G network-as-a-service tender in Delhi in November 2024. Moreover, the operator’s 4G stack can be upgraded to 5G. Further, BSNL is exploring enterprise 5G solutions and private 5G.
Embracing 5G technologies
Numerous technologies are becoming popular in the country to support seamless 5G connectivity. One such technology is 5G New Radio (NR), an international standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for a unified, more capable 5G wireless air interface. Some of its salient features include faster data speeds, lower latency and improved connectivity.
Massive MIMO is another related technological enabler for 5G. This radio technology utilises multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver to augment the quality, throughput and capacity of the radio link. It leverages spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing. Overall, it improves 5G network performance through better capacity, enhanced coverage and lower latency.
Over time, NR has seen a few refinements. Reduced capacity (RedCap) is an affordable rendition that is associated with benefits such as bandwidth utilisation efficiency, flexible allocation of resources within the network, lower energy consumption, improved network coverage and reduced network load. However, RedCap works only on 5G SA network. Taking this concept a step further, the latest 3GPP Release 18 introduced enhanced RedCap (eRedCap), which has lower performance requirements, making it ideal for 5G internet of things (IoT) applications. eRedCap is associated with a lower peak rate (10 Mbps versus 225 Mbps) and an optional reduced baseband bandwidth (5 MHz versus 20 MHz for data channel transmissions) in comparison to RedCap.
Millimeter wave (mmWave) is also a wireless technology that leverages high-band frequency of the radio spectrum (above 24 GHz) electromagnetic waves to transmit data. It enables carriers to aggregate more blocks of bandwidth, thereby improving their speed and efficiency.
Software-defined networking (SDN) and its complementary technology, network function virtualisation (NFV) are also serving as catalysts for 5G. By virtualising infrastructure, NFV eradicates the requirement for expensive proprietary hardware investments. It also allows the division of a 5G physical network into multiple virtual networks. In the meantime, SDN leads to optimal network management through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) and separates a network’s data and control planes. Together, these technologies allow network slicing, which, in turn, lets telecom operators provide tailored and secure services to their end users.
In addition to technologies mentioned above, next-generation technologies such as edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), automation, blockchain, and IoT also complement 5G technologies. For example, 5G-enabled IoT devices allow the management of security systems, while ML can foresee network congestion and optimise traffic flow.
5G use cases and monetisation
According to media reports, Jio is ramping up its 5G-based fixed wireless access (FWA) business in a bid to driving 5G monetisation, while Airtel is partnering with academic institutions to explore 5G monetisation opportunities.
Fixed wireless broadband, private 5G, Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Massive Machine Type communication (MMTC) and Ultra Reliable Low Latency communication (uRLLC) are some of the use cases for 5G.
Further, this technology is expected to have numerous benefits across multiple sectors. For instance, in the case of healthcare, 5G can be used for virtual reality, smart ambulance, telemedicine and robotic surgeries. In June 2023, Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals, Kolkata became the first in the country to introduce custom-designed, state-of-the-art 5G-connected ambulance. 5G can also help manufacturing companies with functions such as preventive maintenance, productivity and performance monitoring, reducing downtime or the need for replacing legacy machines. 5G integrated autonomous vehicles can enable vehicle-to-vehicle communication and real-time weather, traffic and safety updates. Last year, Kia India joined hands with Airtel to bring connectivity services in its vehicles. Its private 5G network is also being deployed in a leading industrial group in Pune. Educators can rely on IoT sensors using 5G to track classroom attendance, availability of study rooms and outdoor coverage. Several educational institutions have 5G labs and services, including the Indian Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Technology. Last but not the least, 5G can be leveraged for making mining more secure, efficient and eco-friendly. Towards this end, BSNL, in collaboration with Echelon Edge, is deploying a commercial private 5G network at the Amlohri Open Cast Coal Mines facility in Madhya Pradesh, India.
Ultimately, 5G’s economic viability depends on its adoption by businesses rather than retail users. While 5G offers significant potential, its current use cases are quite limited. This has been a major roadblock in monetising 5G. To add to this, inadequate fibre infrastructure in the country affects the voice quality and speed of 5G services. India is also estimated to have a spectrum deficit of about 1200 Mhz. Although spectrum refarming remains an option, the Department of Telecommunications is mulling the proposal to allow the surrender of spectrum acquired in auctions before 2022. If sanctioned, this move would not only enhance spectrum availability, it would also lighten the industry’s debt burden and offer more room to telcos to dedicate their capex to 5G expansion and monetisation. Concomitantly, telcos could also explore more innovative revenue sharing models or deploy 4G stack that can be easily upgraded to 5G.
Conclusion
Since its launch, 5G in India has made remarkable strides. In February 2025, the Eutelsat Group successfully conducted the world’s first trial of 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) technology, using the Eutelsat OneWeb low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites. This ground-breaking trial is expected to result in satellite and terrestrial network interoperability, lower the cost of access and enable the use of satellite broadband for 5G-enabled devices globally. Another interesting development was the push towards rural connectivity, with the government inviting proposals from indigenous start-ups and research institutions under its “5G Intelligent Village” initiative. Simultaneously, Airtel joined hands with Nokia to launch “Green 5G”initiative to ameliorate energy efficiency of its 4G and 5G networks and significantly decrease carbon emissions. By the time India is poised to have 970 million 5G users in 2030 as per Ericsson’s latest Mobility report, it would be interesting to see which other fleets it would have conquered in this space.
