5G: Industry requires Rs 1.5-2.5 lakh crore capex towards infrastructure

NEW DELHI: The telecom industry will need at least Rs 1.5-2.5 lakh crore investment in the next two-three years towards infrastructure development to facilitate meaningful roll out of 5G services given that India’s fiber layout is much below the required levels.

“The low level of fiberisation at present will necessitate network capex of Rs 1.5-2.5 lakh crore in the next 2-3 years. However, with fiberisation at 35.11% in India as of June 2022, more than 3 lakh km has to be covered at the pan-India level between fiscal 2023 and 2025,” according to a report by Crisil Research.

The 5G network infrastructure will need to support up to 10 times more bandwidth than what 4G infrastructure currently supports, said experts. In India, currently only 35% of total towers are fiberised – or connected through optic fiber – against an ideal requirement of 70% for the launch of 5G services. Besides, investments in network densification through provisioning of fiber, small cells and active infrastructure sharing are the other initiatives which need to be taken at the earliest, say industry experts.