Vodafone Idea skips 5G FWA home broadband plan; to focus on mobile customer growth

In March this year, Vodafone Idea CTO Jagbir Singh told Moneycontrol that the telco was taking a strategic, data-driven approach to 5G deployment, prioritising areas where it can maximise returns and reduce churn.

“Unlike our competitors, we don’t have a strong fixed-line broadband presence. Since companies like Airtel and Jio have extensive fibre networks, FWA complements their strategy. However, we are conducting trials and evaluating the business case for FWA,” Singh had said.

According to Ashwinder Sethi, partner at Analysys Mason, FWA is typically more relevant in suburban and rural areas with limited FTTx coverage. However, Vi’s short-to-medium-term 5G deployment will focus on metro and urban areas, where demand for enhanced mobile broadband on handsets is higher. “Thus, the lack of rural coverage as well as potential 5G FWA capex in case of traffic growth leading to capacity sites, could be the reason why Vi is not bullish on FWA,” Sethi said on Vi’s decision to focus on 5G for mobile users.

As of June-end, Vi’s subscriber base stood at 197.7 million, down 0.5 million sequentially. A year earlier, the base was 210.1 million. The telco lost 5 million subscribers each in the second and third quarters of FY25. However, its 4G/5G subscriber base improved to 127.4 million in the June quarter from 126.4 million in the previous quarter and 126.7 million in the same period last year due to the ongoing 4G and 5G network expansion.

During the Q1 earnings call, the company's management said it will systematically expand its 5G footprint in line with growing 5G handset adoption.

While Vi has decided to skip 5G FWA for now, its rivals, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, are leveraging both 5G FWA and fibre to offer home broadband. FWA remains the only mass-market 5G use case generating real revenue for telcos, helping them expand quickly beyond metros, especially in areas where laying fibre is difficult or uneconomical.

Vinish Bawa, TMT head at PwC, told Moneycontrol that FWA in India is shifting from being just an access solution to a mainstream broadband alternative. Operators are driving adoption in fibre-dark regions while investing in spectrum efficiency and network densification to sustain quality of service.

"With low ARPUs and rising household data consumption, telcos are moving beyond cheap, unlimited data—pivoting instead to tiered plans, bundled content, and SME/enterprise-led monetisation to ensure FWA’s long-term viability," Bawa said. "The opportunity ahead for telcos lies in a differentiated play: targeting underserved clusters, building a hybrid model with fibre partnerships, and positioning FWA as a platform for MSMEs and 5G-led enterprise use cases, rather than just a stop-gap."

Reliance Jio, meanwhile, is taking a different approach with its proprietary Unlicensed Band Radio (UBR) technology, integrated into its FWA service. Jio claims UBR delivers gigabit speeds without cable-related disruptions, while supporting high-end applications.

The company argues that relying only on 5G and fibre has limits: 5G networks are crowded with mobile users, spectrum is scarce and expensive, and fibre is vulnerable to physical damage. UBR, which utilises the unlicensed 5GHz Wi-Fi band, provides Jio with a faster and more cost-effective alternative to the 3.6GHz licensed spectrum currently employed in 5G FWA. Jio AirFiber has already become the world’s largest FWA service provider, hitting its target of adding 1 million homes a month.

Airtel has not yet disclosed plans to deploy UBR for broadband. Analysts note that operators’ choices will depend on internal strategies—whether spectrum deployment or cost savings drive their priorities—while ensuring service quality.

According to TRAI data, total wireless (5G FWA) subscribers increased from 7.85 million at the end of June 2025 to 8.40 million at the end of July 2025. Of these, 5.02 million were in urban areas and 3.38 million in rural areas, translating to a 59.71% and 40.29% share, respectively.

The total FWA subscriber base (excluding UBR) stood at 7.9 million, up 0.45 million month-on-month. Jio added 0.25 million and Airtel 0.2 million. Jio’s market share moderated to 77.8% with 6.1 million users, while Airtel’s stood at 22.2% with 1.7 million users.

In the 5G FWA segment (excluding UBR), Jio added 0.34 million subscribers in July, maintaining its leadership with a 76.7% market share. Bharti Airtel added 0.21 million subscribers, taking its share to around 23.3% at the end of July 2025. In the FTTH and UBR sub-segment, Jio posted strong FTTH additions of 0.59 million in July, supported by rollouts on UBR technology, while Bharti Airtel recorded steady FTTH growth with 0.14 million additions, according to JM Financial’s analysis of TRAI’s July data.

Analysts said FWA is helping accelerate broadband penetration in India, particularly in fibre-dark regions, thanks to its lower deployment costs and faster time to market. However, they cautioned that as user density rises, spectrum constraints and signal interference could erode service quality. The real challenge, they noted, is not just coverage but delivering a consistent, high-performance experience.

“Telcos should target investments in spectrum efficiency, small-cell densification, and traffic optimisation to sustain quality of service in the future. In India’s ARPU-constrained market, FWA’s low-cost model cannot serve increasingly data-hungry households at scale. Its unit economics weaken quickly in high-usage zones. Telcos must pivot from a pure volume game to value-led monetisation. Tiered plans, convergence with content and cloud, and enterprise use cases will be critical to building viable unit economics over time,” Bawa said.

Bawa added that FWA should not be seen only as a residential solution. It can unlock agility for MSMEs, gig economy hubs, pop-up retail, and temporary enterprise sites. Combined with 5G and edge computing, it can enable high-performance, location-flexible operations.

“Telcos should treat FWA as a strategic platform, not just a stop-gap, to build a differentiated market position,” he said.

Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.