Airtel to launch 5G in 300 cities by March 2023, focus on markets with high 4G traffic, says MD Gopal Vittal

Kolkata: Bharti Airtel will target 5G rollouts in 300 cities by March 2023 and focus on regions where demand for 4G services is already high, the company’s managing director Gopal Vittal said.

He, though, added that Airtel’s 5G expansion into rural India would hinge on how rapidly the devices ecosystem matures.

“We are already seeing traffic offloads happening from 4G to 5G in some areas, and this is where we will go with 5G,” Vittal said at the telco’s fiscal third quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Airtel, he said, would use 5G services as a pivot to grow its high-value postpaid business, adding that the telco had identified the top 150 cities that make up 40% of the Indian telecom market, cutting across the mobile, broadband, DTH and B2B businesses.