India Targets 1 Billion 5G Subscribers by 2030: Scindia

Union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that India should aim to expand 5G connectivity to around 100 crore mobile subscribers by 2030, up from 50 crore at present. He stated that 5G services were officially introduced in India in October 2022 and, over a period of 23 months, the country established 5 lakh base stations with investment worth $550 billion.

Growth and Infrastructure Metrics

The minister noted that ‘today 99.9 per cent of our districts are connected by 5G. 86 per cent of our population and close to 500 million customers are on 5G alone in a period of two years–the fastest 5G rollout in the world. We will not stop here. It is our target that by 2030, we must have a billion customers from 500 million today on 5G.’

Key rollout figures include:

99.9 per cent of Indian districts are connected by 5G.

86 per cent of the population is covered under the network.

500 million customers are currently on 5G alone.

Digital Payments and Security

The minister explained that 5G systems are connecting machines with intelligence for transactions, and the fintech revolution, which is part of the AI revolution, is inseparable from the connectivity revolution. He stated that ‘today in India, we conduct close to 49 per cent of global real-time digital payment volumes. That means one in every two transactions across 170 countries in the world is done in India. Therefore, every QR code payment behind it lies an invisible architecture, an architecture of telecom networks carrying transactions, an architecture of digital identities carrying trust.’

The government is addressing digital security through multiple technology platforms:

Bharatnet is a $16-billion programme undertaken by the government to provide broadband connectivity to every gram panchayat, which is an agglomeration of three to four villages, with a 100 Mbps connection.

Sanchar Saathi platform has 300 million downloads, where users report suspicious connections, report fraud, and block suspicious mobiles.

Astra is an AI-powered system that has disconnected 8.8 million mobile phones that were suspicious of fraud.

Reserve Bank of India has mandated the financial fraud risk indicator to be adopted by all banking institutions to protect citizens’ interests, as Scindia added that the Reserve Bank of India has mandated this adoption.