Bharti Airtel bats for 5G phones under Rs 21k to drive broadband usage

NEW DELHI: Bharti AirtelNSE 0.10 % said the first wave of 5G smartphones in India must not be priced above $300 (about Rs 21,300) to drive mass consumption of the ultra-fast wireless broadband service, even as experts predicted that the devices would gain wide acceptance within two years.

“5G smartphones are now priced around $1,000 (Rs 71,000) globally, which needs to drop to a maximum $300 for unlocking the next wave of mass data consumption in India,” Bharti Airtel’s chief technology officer Randeep Sekhon told ET.