Despite India's rapid 5G rollout, the full range of benefits beyond high-speed connectivity is yet to be realised, Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal on Friday.
"Currently, we're seeing only high speed but not the rest of the advantages that come with 5G," he said at an event. He was speaking at the IPCIDE Annual Conference on the State of India's Digital Economy 2025 in New Delhi.
While 5G promises ultra-low latency, massive IoT connectivity, and industrial applications, the current focus remains on faster speeds, leaving many transformative use cases untapped.
More use-cases are essential for the country's telcos to recoup the high costs of deploying the 5G network, echoing an industry wide concern.
"Significant capital expenditure will be needed as we transition from 5G to 6G. We also need to identify new spectrum to support the increased data flows,” he said.
Further, with data consumption surging, largely driven by entertainment content, India's telecom infrastructure is under increasing pressure. "We're going to see a lot of pressure on spectrum as data flows increase," he said.
BSNL's 5G rollout has reached 80% completion, signaling progress in expanding high-speed connectivity across the country. However, Mittal pointed out that spectrum availability remains a concern as data traffic continues to rise.
Affordability of 5G-enabled devices is another challenge. “We take affordability for granted, but we need to work on making devices more accessible to ensure wider adoption,” he said.
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