According to the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), India is one of the seven countries in the Asia Pacific region in terms of the commercial deployment of 5G standalone (SA) network. The London-based organization said that India now has more than 1.2 billion smartphone connections, making it one of Asia Pacific’s top three smartphone markets. It expects India’s smartphone adoption to rise to 95 per cent by 2030. India will also be one of Asia Pacific’s leaders in the licensed cellular internet of things (IoT) market, which is set to double in size in the region between 2023 and 2030 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9 per cent.
The association adds that India has the third-largest user base of 5G in the world and is on track to become one of the top telecom superpowers by 2030. As per GSMA, India’s 5G deployment is expanding rapidly, with 49 per cent population expected to be using the mobile technology by 2030. Further, India can lead the world’s second wave of 5G deployment, economically benefitting industries, including manufacturing and fintech, and society.GSMA highlighted that Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have completed their nationwide 5G network deployments this year. Both the players are offering commercial 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services to customers. Furthermore, Jio has deployed more than a million 5G cell sites for its SA network and is leveraging network slicing technology for dedicated slices serving gaming, high-security services, and FWA customers, among others. Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) is gearing up to launch its commercial 5G services soon.
