5G in India to reach 300 million subscribers by March 2025 as Reliance Jio and Airtel has rolled out aggressively

As per a CRISIL report, the 5G services across India is expected to have around a third of wireless users or about 300 million subscribers by March, 2025. This is because Reliance Jio and Airtel are aggressively rolling out their 5G network across the country. It was earlier estimated as 20-25 million as of March 2023. CRISIL, in its report, said that the subscribers of 5G services will up-trade to higher data packs for better speeds, which in turn, would increase the overall average revenue per user (ARPU) and the return metrics for the telecommunication companies (telcos).

Reliance Jio has so far launched 5G services in about 277 cities, with the deployment of more than 40,000 sites and 2,50,000 cells of 5G network in 700 megahertz (MHz) and 3,500 MHz bands. Furthermore, Bharti Airtel also crossed the 10 million unique 5G user mark on its network.

The CRISIL study claims that as retail use cases are unlocked, 5G mass adoption would accelerate. Currently, only about 30-35% of the 150-170 million smartphones shipped in India on an annual basis are 5G enabled.

Mr. Rounak Agarwal, Team Leader, CRISIL Ratings, said that 5G can increase the adoption of over-the-top (OTT) streaming services and online gaming, which would further gather demand for data. By FY25, the average data usage per subscriber per month is expected to rise to 28-30 gigabytes (GB) from 20 GB at present.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.