Data from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has shown low 5G usage in various parts of India, and according to experts the slow pace of adoption means that the union government’s ambition of achieving pan-India 5G coverage by 2026-end may not be realised.
Independent Drive Test reports released by the telecom regulator for April 2025 showed that Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio users spent only 3-10 per cent and 12-19 per cent of their total device time respectively on 5G. In comparison, 4G usage varied from 75-100 per cent across all three telcos.
This is despite earlier government announcements confirming 5G services roll-out in 99.6 per cent of districts in the country, with 4.69 lakhs 5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) installed by February-end. At the time, the government estimated 25 crore mobile 5G subscribers.
In February, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal had announced that India is set to operate entirely on 5G by the end of 2026, during the India-Israel Business Forum in New Delhi.
Professor V Sridhar from the International Institute of Information Technology in Bengaluru, told businessline that this goal will not be achieved within the set timeline.
“The users must have 5G handsets to subscribe for 5G services. In general, the chipset cost for 5G compatibility is relatively high. This also requires major overhaul of the network as opposed to 4G because 5G uses a high frequency spectrum like 3.3 Ghz and base stations. Operators cannot use the same cell configuration as 4G. So, it is certainly not possible to reach 5G penetration by 2026,” said Sridhar, pointing out that even 4G has only reached 800 million subscribers, while some rural users are still on 2G.
In comparison, total wireless 5G FWA subscribers stood at 7.50 million by April end, with subscriptions in urban and rural areas of 4.72 million and 2.77 million, respectively.
Like Sridhar, Mahesh Uppal, Director of Com First (India), said that aspiring for full 5G coverage by 2026 is not a feasible expectation considering access to 5G handsets and use-cases for the service.
“If the vast majority of people are struggling with 5G handsets then having 5G is neither here nor there. 200-300 million people use 2G handsets and so by definition don’t use broadband or virtually any data. So, we should not overstate the benefits of 100 per cent 5G coverage in one year,” said Uppal.
Sources working with major telcos also said that handsets and use-cases are huge hurdles in migrating people from 4G to 5G. One source pointed out that users do not switch to 5G even when their handsets can do so, fearing heavy battery drainage.
“This is not as big a concern in larger metro cities but for rural areas, battery drainage is a huge worry. The preference may change as initially 4G had the same problem but even so pan-India coverage by 2026-end will be hard to achieve,” said the source.
As per a GSMA report, consumer are gravitating towards circular devices and services which could exceed $150 billion by 2027.