Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest telecom operator, has confirmed the launch of dual-5G mode. This mode has both 5G NSA (non-standlone) and 5G SA (standalone). The company has, in fact, rolled it out in a total of 13 circles. Airtel had already said that it is planning to launch 5G SA for the FWA (fixed wireless access) customers. Now the same has been deployed in conjuction with 5G NSA in 13 circles.
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At the recent earnings call with the analysts for Q2 FY26, Gopal Vittal, Bharti Airtel's CEO said, "We are now in the process of transitioning our 5G networks towards 5G advanced by introducing dual NSA plus SA mode and migrating our FWA users on the same. Today, our FWA customers across 13 circles are already experiencing our dual-mode 5G network with SA."
Airtel's only offering the dual-mode 5G to the FWA customers right now. For mobile users, the wait has to be slightly longer. The 5G SA is also called 5G advanced and allows things such as network slicing and more efficiently.
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"For the mobile network, pilots are underway for the 5G dual mode in a couple of circles, and we plan to make it commercial in the coming months as the traffic on our 5G network grows," added Vittal.
Vittal didn't mention the particular circles where the pilots are ongoing. But these are likely the ones where most 5G users are as those are the circles where the telco would find the need for extra capacity in the near future. Airtel said that its 5G user count reached 167 million at the end of this quarter. The company's 5G user base is the second largest in India after Reliance Jio. This is expected to grow in the coming future and eventually, 5G SA would be launched as well.
