Ericsson expects India’s mobile market to keep expanding beyond its first nationwide 5G rollout wave. The company sees rising data use, wider coverage, and AI applications driving fresh network demand.
Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, India and Head-Networks for South East Asia, Oceania and India, shared the view during India Mobile Congress.
“We do not believe that growth has plateaued. Growth will continue as AI applications introduce new network requirements, including higher uplink speeds and lower latency for applications such as augmented and virtual reality and the management of critical infrastructure. Network expectations will continue to rise, and data consumption will grow further,” Bansal said.
India already ranks among the world’s largest 5G markets. Services launched in October 2022. By September 2026, the country had about 550 million 5G users. Government figures also show coverage across 99.9% of districts.
However, large-scale coverage does not automatically create matching revenue growth. Operators now need stronger monetization models. The early phase focused mainly on faster mobile broadband. The next phase needs enterprise services, home broadband, and premium network features.
Fixed Wireless Access has become one clear opportunity. It uses mobile networks to deliver broadband to homes and businesses. TRAI data showed 13.45 million 5G FWA subscribers by August 2026. This highlights its role in expanding broadband reach.
Meanwhile, operators are testing more advanced service models. Bharti Airtel recently launched a network-slicing service for postpaid users. Network slicing creates dedicated virtual lanes on the same physical network. This can deliver faster and more reliable service for selected customers.
Bansal also defended India’s rapid nationwide deployment strategy.
“5G is not about use case for Indian networks. India needed capacity and 5G brings the capacity in the most efficient way. So, rather than expanding on 4G, I believe India did the right thing by evolving to 5G. The true value of 5G comes with ubiquitous coverage. And so, with the nice coverage that we have and we also have a lot of 5G Standalone (5G-SA) deployment as well, it opens up other monetization possibilities.”
The opportunity remains large, but the market is fiercely contested. Ericsson competes with Nokia, Samsung, and other vendors in India. Its South East Asia, Oceania and India region contributed 12% of business in 2025. That was down from 20% in 2023.
Still, India’s 5G journey has room to grow. Current 5G adoption covers only around one-third of the population. Monthly user data already stands near 36GB to 37GB, according to Ericsson’s Mobility Report.
“I believe that we are moving in the right direction, and we should see some more monetization use cases coming our way in the coming months,” Bansal said.
The next test will involve network tuning for AI-driven applications. Existing networks can support many services today. Yet operators must optimize performance for each demanding use case. That could define India’s next telecom growth cycle.
