JOIN USIndia’s 5G rollout fastest in the world; 6G by 2029: Vaishnaw
The rollout of the fifth-generation or 5G telecom service in India, which started in October last year, has been the fastest in the world and the country is likely to launch 6G network infrastructure by 2029, union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.
“We are laying the foundation for the future. 6G will come around 2029-30,” Vaishnaw said while addressing an event organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The 5G service in India was rolled out on October 1, 2022. It was simultaneously launched in 13 cities.
Vaishnaw said the target was to cover 200 cities by December 2023, but 5G services have already been launched in 397 cities. “Nobody in the world has seen such a rapid rollout of 5G,” he said.
The minister said India is set to take a lead in 6G technology globally. “The prime minister has given us a clear target that India has to take the lead in 6G,” said Vaishnaw, who holds the portfolios of Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology in Prime Minister Narendra Modi government.
Vaishnaw said India has become an exporter of telecom equipment. According to the minister, India started export of radio equipment, used in telecom towers, to the United States around five months back.
Nearly a third of wireless data users in India, or around 300 million subscribers, are expected to use 5G services by March 2025, as against an estimated 20-25 million in March 2023, according to rating agency CRISIL.
While telcos are on a spree to roll out 5G services across India, mass adoption would gather pace when retail use-cases get unlocked, it said.
Currently, about 30-35 per cent of the 150-170 million smartphones shipped in India annually are 5G enabled. While the share of 5G smartphones shipments will improve gradually, still low initial value proposition and high cost of the gadget versus a 4G phone would restrict overall 5G adoption to 300 million users by fiscal 2025, said Naveen Vaidyanathan, Director, CRISIL Ratings.
Subscribers of 5G services will provide a fillip to data consumption because they would upgrade to higher data packs for better speeds, which will drive up overall average revenue per user (ARPU) and return metrics for telecommunication companies (telcos).
“5G could accelerate adoption of over-the-top streaming services and online gaming, which would drive data demand further,” said Rounak Agarwal, Team Leader, CRISIL Ratings.
Agarwal said average data usage per subscriber per month is expected to rise to 28-30 GB by fiscal 2025 from the current around 20 GB.