India is witnessing the world's fastest 5G rollout. Ashwini Vaishnaw, union telecom minister, said that there are now 3,00,000 5G sites deployed in the country. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are the two telecom operators that are continuously rolling out 5G in the nation. Jio has so far reached 90% of census towns and cities with its 5G. On its website, Jio says that it has launched 5G in 6258 towns/cities. The official number for Airtel is unknown. But the way the 5G rollout is going in India, by the end of this year, the entire country should be covered with 5G, aligning with the goals of the telecom operators.
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However, it will be providing 100% 5G coverage which will be a challenge for the telcos. It would require highly dense telecom infrastructure that would involve huge costs. Currently, 5G is only available in select parts of the cities, wherever it is launched. The Indian government is doing its part to help the telecom players in rolling out 5G fast. Now telcos can get RoW (Right of Way) approvals super fast because of the launch of the GatiShakti Sanchar portal. Further, the government has simplified the process of obtaining SAFCA clearance to deploy low-powered BTS (Base Transceiver Station), small cells and more.
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Currently, the key challenges around 5G are - a) coverage and b) monetisation. There is a deep disconnect between the consumers and the 5G at the moment because of the lack of use cases around it. Further, there's a lack of deep 5G coverage for it to be a normal experience for consumers. The government is working to motivate academic institutions and startups to come up with new use cases for 5G. The DoT (Department of Telecommunications) has organised the "5G & Beyond Hackathon 2023" to explore what more can be done in the field of 5G.
