Bharti Airtel will launch a standalone 5G network to support its Fixed Wireless Access broadband service in the country in August-September, a top executive said.
“The incremental capex to run 5G SA is modest. All our radios and core networks are SA radio; we need software to enable it. When we launch SA by August or September, we will be available nationally,” Gopal Vittal, Managing Director of Bharti Airtel, said during the Q1 earnings call on August 6.
The telco believes that home broadband prices are still low in India compared to other markets, which means the total addressable market could be more than 60-65 million.
The bulk of the broadband market is focused on the top 1000 cities and Airtel said its Wi-Fi service comprising FWA and FTTH home broadband is available in 1300 cities. To grow the home broadband business, Vittal said that fibre will be the main component to connect homes in the country.
“Our homes business or the homes segment will continue to see strong growth because there are still over 20-25 million high-value homes that still don't have broadband. And we do know that every time a smart TV is bought, it's a moment of reappraisal for that home to consider broadband. So to that extent, we do believe that this will continue to grow,” Vittal said.
Vittal reiterated that 5G monetisation remains a problem and there are no major use cases globally other than FWA. “FWA is a modest 5G use case,” he said.
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