One-year journey of 5G: Reliance Jio leads the 5G network race in India

For both Jio and Airtel, capital expenditure has increased exponentially as they sink in unprecedented levels of investments into the network rollout for 5G services

A year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 5G services on October 1, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel continue to be locked in a race to cover the country with 5G signals and acquire more customers. On the other hand, two other companies who had acquired 5G spectrum — Vodafone Idea and Adani Data Networks — are yet to effectively use it. For both Jio and Airtel, capex has increased exponentially. Jio has announced it will invest Rs 2 trillion as it looks to cover the entire country by December.

 

Meanwhile, Airtel has announced it will incur additional capex of Rs 28,500 crore in FY24 for the same. The lagging pace of revenue growth has instead built conflict in between the telecom players, with over the top (OTT) content and communication providers. Both Jio and Airtel have desisted from raising tariffs for 5G. Entry level plans for 5G have been kept on a par with 4G, to convert more users from the 4G category. Both have announced unlimited 5G data offers for postpaid and prepaid users with plans of Rs 239 or above.