Airtel Looking to Get Ahead of Jio, Vi With 5G

Bharti Airtel is looking to get ahead of Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea in the 5G race. The telco has been raising funds very aggressively. It might be solely because the telco wants to enter the spectrum auctions with full confidence about its ability to get the best out of it. In the last few months, Airtel has raised funds multiple times. Once through the rights issue, then with the Google partnership, and now the telco is looking to raise up to $1 billion (USD) with debt instruments.

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Airtel has constantly been upgrading networks across the country to support 5G as and when it launches. Airtel calls its mobile networks 5G ready. Not that Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) aren’t doing the same, but Airtel’s strategy of raising funds looks aggressive.

Airtel Has Already Proved the Power of 5G

Bharti Airtel was the first in India to test a live 5G network using Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in Hyderabad, using spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. The telco was successful in its testing and was able to showcase the power of 5G to the people living in India.

This was way back in early 2021. A year later, Airtel has come a long way working with its partners and conducting 5G trials. The telco has tested cloud gaming and more on its 5G networks and found successful results.

Vodafone Idea is going to face a lot of problems with the upcoming 5G spectrum auctions. The telco doesn’t have the money needed. Vi has been trying to raise funds for years now but hasn’t been able to secure any so far. Airtel, on the other hand, has raised funds multiple times in the last two quarters alone.