According to industry sources, Bharti Airtel will switch to standalone (SA) mode of 5G in a few years as demand evolves, but will not need the 700 MHz band. Airtel has enough mid-band spectrum and it will be refarmed to roll out SA 5G when the requirement arises.
As per the sources, Airtel has the capability to roll out SA mode even now but there is no requirement as not enough uptake has taken place so far. Even the existing capacity will not be utilised fully. But the telco ultimately plans to shift to SA mode as the demand increases. Moreover, the company does not intend to buy the 700 MHz band in future for rolling out SA mode and instead utilise its spectrum in 850 MHz and 900 MHz, which offer the same characteristics.
