“India’s market has changed a lot in the last five years,” Julian Gorman, Asia head of London-based GSMA, told ET. “There are certainly some stakeholders and investors (that are) looking to participate, who do have confidence that this is a great place for the future of 5G.”
The GSMA represents nearly 800 carriers worldwide including India’s top telcos – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi).
Gorman said that while the rest of the world moves towards 5G, a lot of countries would start to look at India as a guiding star in 5G, contrary to the traditional dominance by the US and China.
“I believe India, like it did in the 4G era, will create its own unicorns, innovations that will define it as different from other 5G nations,” he said.
In India’s first-ever 5G spectrum sale, the government sold 71% of the total 72,098 GHz of airwaves put to auction for ₹1,50,173 crore.
Jio spent a whopping ₹88,078 crore on 5G airwaves, while Airtel and Vi bought 5G spectrum worth ₹43,084 crore and ₹18,799 crore, respectively.
“It’s about the intent of the operators and the diversity of their actions. The standalone (SA) networks for Jio and the non-standalone (NSA) networks for Airtel indicate that there is a greater breadth of potential for investment in different use cases, Gorman added.
Jio and Airtel will launch 5G services next month, while Vi is yet to set a firm timeline as it is yet to raise fresh loans and conclude 5G network gear procurement contracts. Airtel, which has opted for the NSA mode, is targeting a pan-India 5G rollout by March 2024. Jio has chosen the SA mode for its countrywide 5G rollout.
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