Bharti Airtel said it has already reached full 5G coverage in Mumbai
Indian operator Bharti Airtel has reached 2 million 5G customers in the city of Mumbai, the telco said in a release. The carrier also said it has reached full coverage in Mumbai with its 5G network seven months after launching the service in the city.
Vibhor Gupta, CEO of the Mumbai region at Bharti Airtel, said: “We are thrilled to have over 2 million customers enjoying the power of 5G in Mumbai. We are happy to have expanded our 5G footprint far and wide in the city.”
At a national level, Airtel’s 5G service is now available in over 3,000 cities and towns across the country. The company has recently surpassed the 10 million unique customer mark on its 5G network nationally and said it aims to cover every town and key rural area with its 5G service by September 2023.
The telco’s CEO, Gopal Vittal, recently told local newspaper The Economic Times that the company expects its 5G service to reach 7,000 cities and nearly 100,000 villages across India by March 2024.
Vittal highlighted that 5G monetization and resulting ARPU growth will only happen with tariff increases. Currently, both Bharti Airtel and rival operator Reliance Jio Infocomm are offering 5G services for free, according to the report.
In October 2022, Bharti Airtel initially launched 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi.
Airtel is currently using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 5G services. The Indian operator had secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a previous auction carried out by the Indian government.
Rival operator Reliance Jio Infocomm recently claimed its 5G footprint reached 2,300 cities and towns across India at the end of the first quarter. Jio has already deployed over 60,000 5G sites across the 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands.
However, according to the carrier’s website, Reliance Jio Infocomm is currently offering its 5G service in 3,636 cities across 36 states in India.
About a third of wireless data users in India, or 300 million subscribers, are expected to use 5G services by March 2025, according to a recent report by Indian analytical company Crisil Ratings. Crisil Ratings, which is owned by S&P Global, also estimated that a total of 20-25 million subscribers are already using 5G services in the Asian nation.
