Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel announced it has crossed the 1 million unique 5G user mark on its network.
The company achieved this milestone in less than 30 days of its commercial launch even as the network is being built. Airtel is offering 5G services for the price of 4G to its customers. Airtel’s 5G services are available in select areas in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. Airtel is launching 5G services in these cities in a phased manner as the company continues to construct its network.
Telecom equipment makers such as Ericsson and Nokia are supporting Bharti Airtel in the roll out of 5G services across India.
Smartphones from Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Realme are now supporting Airtel’s 5G customers. Samsung and One Plus will be fully ready in the next couple of weeks. Apple will be ready later, Gopal Vittal – MD and CEO, Bharti Airtel, said last week during an analyst call.
Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, said: “These are early days but the response from customers have been very encouraging. Our network is being built every day even as all 5G devices are now capable of working on the Airtel 5G Plus network barring a few exceptions which should also be done in the coming weeks.”
Airtel initiated the 5G trials in 2021 and became the first operator to commercially launch 5G in the country. Customers with 5G smart phones can enjoy the high speed Airtel 5G Plus on their existing data plans until the roll out is more widespread. There is no need to change the SIM as the existing Airtel 4G SIM is 5G enabled.
Airtel India reported that its mobile ARPU rose qoq from Rs 183 to Rs 190 during the July-September quarter of 2022. ARPU growth of 1.6 percent is a positive surprise — driven by premiumization – from smartphone upgrades and increased data consumption, JP Morgan wrote in a analyst report.
