5G HYPE ΤΟ HUSTLE

Past the fanfare, India's 5G race heats up with infrastructure hurdles and strategic hustle

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The much-anticipated 5G rollout in India began a year ago, with promises of lightning-fast speeds and a transformative mobile experience. Airtel and Jio, major players in the Indian telecom sector, unveiled their 5G plans at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022. However, while the 5G rollout has generated excitement and buzz, the ground reality for users paints a different picture.

Approaching the one-year mark since the initiation of 5G services by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, the two telecom giants have extended their coverage to encompass nearly 10,000 cities and towns. Their ambitious goal is to achieve pan-India coverage by the end of the current calendar year or by March ‘24. In contrast to a decline in telecom gear shipment across major geographies, the 5G rollout in India has proven resilient, effectively countering a downturn in business for companies like Ericsson and Nokia.

Nokia President and CEO Pekka Lundmark expressed that India’s 5G network rollout has been remarkable, positioning the country among the top three globally with the largest 5G installed base. Lundmark highlighted the speed of the rollout, emphasizing that India has achieved this status at a pace that is among the fastest in the history of telecom network deployments. Furthermore, he noted that India’s 5G download speeds surpass those in many advanced markets.

But, despite the 5G icon appearing on phones across major Indian cities, the experience of 5G has fallen short of expectations. Users, particularly those of Airtel and Jio, have reported slower and patchier networks since the full-scale rollout. Call drops and network vacuums have become more frequent, leading to frustration among early adopters.