The 5G BTS (base transceiver station) count in India is growing extremely slow now. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have moderated capex (capital expenditure) towards 5G rollout and now are more focused towards optimising the networks. The slow addition of 5G BTS tells the story of a stagnant market too. There aren't plenty of 5G use cases for the customers. The total 5G BTS count reached 4,69,792 at the end of February 2025. This jumped only slightly from 4,67,620 a month ago (end of January 2025). In fact, in February 2024, the 5G BTS count was 4,25,987. So YoY growth has is also quite slow.
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Vodafone Idea to Contribute with More 5G BTS
As Jio and Airtel have reached their desire count of 5G BTS for now, it is the turn of Vodafone Idea (Vi) to make a move. Vi has already started rolling out 5G and is now preparing for a larger rollout in its priority cities. The maximum growth for 5G BTS will come from Vodafone Idea likely in the months to come.
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Reliance Jio has deployed the most 5G BTS in India. This is because Jio rolled out 5G SA (standalone architecture) which requires a separate network infrastructure than 4G. Airtel's 4G NSA (non-standalone architecture) works integrated with the 4G network itself. Thus, Airtel had to spend less money and rolled out 5G with less BTS count.
The 5G market in India is still growing as more affordable 5G phones make their way to the market. There are more and more 5G phone options coming in under Rs 12,000 from the Chinese brands and Samsung as well now. Apart from Vi, BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) is also expected to contribute to the increase of 5G BTS in India.
