Jio, Airtel make steady progress despite looming profitability, ET Telecom

New Delhi: Today (October 1) marks the first year since fifth generation or 5G services were made commercially available in India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India Mobile Congress 2022. Telecom industry leaders Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are in a steady battle to complete the rollout of modern mobile networks in every corner of the country. Initially, the 5G network was launched in major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata, and now Jio and Airtel have served a total of over 10,000 cities with their ‘True 5G’ and ‘5G Plus’ networks, respectively.

It took several months in the making. The country’s first 5G spectrum sale lasted several days and saw intense bidding and billions of dollars spent by carriers. Telecom companies are now grappling with the burning question of monetizing 5G.

Below, we take a look at the carrier’s 5G journey.

When did Jio and Airtel launch their 5G networks?

Airtel became the first telco to launch its ‘5G Plus’ network in eight cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi and Bengaluru on October 1.

“While we were launching 4G in India, Mukesh (Jio) has given us tremendous speed to 4G rollout across the country, forcing us to scramble to catch up. Today. , Airtel will be the first telco to launch 5G services in eight cities,” Airtel Chairman Sunil said. Mittal said this at IMC 2022.

Meanwhile, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said at IMC 2022 that Jio will provide 5G to all towns, talukas and tehsils by December 2023. “Most of Jio’s 5G is being developed in India and hence bears the stamp of Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he said.

Jio has started commercial rollout of 5G services in four cities from Diwali. Jio uses Standalone (SA) architecture, while Airtel uses Non-Standalone (NSA) architecture for his 5G network.

According to Reliance Industries’ (RIL) Q1 FY24 presentation, Jio has deployed over 115,000 5G sites and around 690,000 5G cells across India. The magazine added that “rollout is well ahead of plan” and said Jio’s 5G network now covers more than 90% of census towns.

Meanwhile, Airtel released an update on its 5G coverage in April, saying its 5G Plus network is operational in 3,000 cities and towns.

Vodafone Idea is yet to announce a timeline for the availability of its 5G network, but the telco has installed 26 GHz mmWave and 3.3 on Galle Road in Pune to meet the minimum deployment obligations mandated by the telco. We have successfully tested 5G services in both GHz mid-bands. Department.

In June, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Modi approved the third revitalization package for the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), with a total investment of Rs 89,047 million. This includes the allocation of 4G/5G frequencies to telecom PSUs through equity injection. .

The cabinet said in a statement that with this spectrum allocation, BSNL will provide 4G and 5G services across India, providing 4G coverage in rural areas and uncovered villages under various connectivity projects, and fixed wireless access (FWA). He said he would be able to provide services. Provides captive non-public network (CNPN) services/spectrum. Telecom PSU launched Beta 4G services in Amritsar on July 15, 2023.

London-based GSMA predicts that India will have four 5G networks and an additional 145 million users by the end of 2025.

How many 5G users do Jio and Airtel have each?

Currently, 5G users make up a small portion of both carriers’ overall mobile user base. But that hasn’t stopped Jio and Airtel from achieving milestones.

Airtel had claimed to be the “only telco” with 1 million unique customers on its 5G network within 30 days of commercial launch. Then, in February 2023, the Sunil Mittal-led company announced that its 5G unique users on the network had surpassed his 10 million mark. On Saturday (September 30), Airtel announced that it has recorded over 50 million unique 5G customers.

“We are excited about the speed of 5G adoption by our millions of customers, reaching this milestone sooner than planned. , which represents a significant expansion to 50 million in just 12 months from launch,” Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, said in a statement.

In contrast, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the conglomerate’s recent annual general meeting: We are in a position to seamlessly migrate our 4G customers to 5G without any additional capital investment. ”

What quantum of 5G spectrum has Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea bought?

The central government has broken a record of over Rs 1,500 crore in the country’s first 5G spectrum sale, with Jio emerging as the top bidder.

After 40 rounds over seven consecutive days, market leader Jio won 24,740 MHz 5G airwaves worth Rs 88,078 crore, contributing nearly 59% to the central kitty.

Airtel bought 19,867.8 MHz spectrum worth Rs 43,084 crore, while cash-strapped Vodafone Idea spent Rs 18,799 crore to buy 6,228 MHz airwaves. New entrant Adani Data Networks (a division of the diversified Adani Group) has acquired his 400 MHz spectrum across six cities in the 26 GHz band alone for Rs 212 crore, purely for its captive private network needs. I made a small purchase.

“Without a doubt, this (auction) result is better than what everyone expected, all stakeholders, including the industry and investors. So this is definitely a surprise,” Union Telecommunications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said of the spectrum auction, which ended on August 1 last year and generated Rs 1,50,173 crore. After the event, he spoke to reporters.

What about the deployment of 5G mmWave spectrum?

Both Jio and Airtel are rolling out their respective 5G services on millimeter wave (or mmWave) across India to meet the minimum deployment mandates of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Critical high-band spectrum bands provide short-term, bandwidth-intensive applications such as 5G fixed wireless access (FWA), connected cars, augmented reality (XR), and cloud PCs that can power the digitalization of small and medium-sized businesses. It can provide higher throughput even over distance. and companies.

Jio specifically said that businesses such as banks, educational hubs, hospitals and government agencies are already connected to its 5G mmWave network.

How many 5G base stations (BTS) have telcos deployed in India so far?

As of August 28, 2023, there were 3.38 million 5G BTS deployed in the country, with the highest numbers deployed in Uttar Pradesh (35,916), Maharashtra (34,779), and Tamil Nadu. state (28,307 units).

Which 5G use cases are available in India?

After months of speculation and expectations, Jio and Airtel have commercially launched their 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services, JioAirFiber and Xstream AirFiber, respectively. According to analysts and market experts, FWA is one of the first use cases of the fifth generation to help monetize. Other use cases will be introduced in the coming months.

According to Ericsson, there were already 100 million connections worldwide by the end of 2022, and this is expected to rise to 300 million by 2028, with the majority of connections being 5G. 5G FWA is gaining popularity globally, with 85 carriers in 46 countries launching his FWA services by the end of May 2022.

What are the main challenges that telcos have had to deal with when rolling out 5G networks?

However, the road so far has not been smooth. Telcos have to contend with some major challenges, including inconsistent right-of-way (RoW) rules across states and lack of software support for 5G smartphones, while quality of service (QoS) continues to require increased scrutiny. continuing.

After 5G was rolled out to much fanfare, carriers, chipset manufacturers, and mobile phone vendors faced a major hurdle in enabling support for the latest networks on their devices. The issue has escalated so much that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) had to convene a high-level meeting with telecom operators, smartphone companies, chipset manufacturers and industry bodies late last year. Ta. Following this, major smartphone brands including Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and Google have prioritized software updates to enable support for 5G services in India. We have committed to rolling out software updates to each device.

However, consumer demand for mobile devices that supported modern networks did not increase. According to a market research firm, India achieved the milestone of 100 million 5G smartphone sales in May 2023.

Aiming to improve consumer experience, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed stringent performance benchmarks for telecom operators, especially related to call drops, and for the first time incorporates parameters for 5G services.

“TRAI has received numerous complaints from subscribers regarding dropped calls and other network-related issues, especially after the rollout of 5G services,” the regulator said in a consultation paper on the subject.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Secretary General SP Kochhar said in an interview with ETTelecom that 5G QoS is limited due to low tower density and mobile signals being transmitted at lower power compared to World Health Organization (WHO) regulations. said that it is declining. ), the fibrosis level should be only 30-35% and reach up to 65%.

Discrepancies in right-of-way (RoW) rules between states were also a major bottleneck, but the central government has stepped up by launching a centralized RoW portal to speed up application clearance and accelerate the rollout of 5G infrastructure. I’ve addressed this. As per the latest dashboard data, states have approved 1,25,275 her RoW applications.