5G is now a pretty common sight in many parts of India. Especially if you are in an urban city or a town, you are guaranteed to have 5G in some corners or streets. While Jio has led the 5G rollout in most places, Airtel has been very strategic about where it launches 5G. Over 15 months have passed since 5G was launched in the country, but the telcos have not yet discovered any way to meaningfully monetise it. Users are getting unlimited 5G from their service providers if they are recharging with a denomination of Rs 239 or more (both prepaid and postpaid).

However, this is not in the best interest of the operators in the long term. Free 5G may increase the adoption rate, but it doesn't guarantee any additional revenues in the future. While higher tariffs for 5G aren't feasible, the only way for the telcos to use their money in a better way would be to slowdown the 5G investments in the country.

Many analysts expect the telcos to slowdown 5G investments from FY25. Most of the areas of India will already be covered by 5G until then. This would improve free cash flow (FCF) for the telcos, especially Reliance Jio, which is investing heavily in rolling out 5G SA (standalone architecture). Jio and Airtel both are expected to complete most of their 5G rollout by the end of FY24 (March 31, 2024).

So the answer is yes, the telcos will slowdown 5G investments because that would be the most sensible thing to do in the short to medium term. The focus of the industry should be towards finding more meaningful use cases of the technology for both consumers and enterprises. This wouldn't hurt the smartphone OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Since there's free 5G and fast adoption is taking place due to that, users would want to switch to a 5G phone if they are spending upwards of Rs 10,000.

Until more use cases of 5G arrive, the network tech can't be monetised. However, the telcos will look to lease spectrum to the enterprises for 5G captive private networks. This way, they can make some extra cash using 5G spectrum that they spent thousands of crores on.