The rollout of 5G services in India can unleash new economic opportunities, the Economic Survey for 2022-23 has said. This will help the country leapfrog the traditional barriers to development, spur innovations by startups and business enterprises, and advance the ‘Digital India‘ vision, the report added.
The Economic Survey for 2022-23 was tabled in the Parliament by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (January 31). It highlighted that 5G could impact consumers directly through higher data transfer speeds and lower latency in use cases related to education, health, worker safety and smart agriculture across the country.
“The massive wave of digitisation, increased penetration of smartphones, and adoption of technology have opened the doors for both traditional and new-age sectors,” the survey said.

Currently, Reliance Jio and Airtel are rolling out 5G services across the country. As per latest numbers, Jio 5G services are available in 225 cities in India.
Journey far from complete
Despite making inroads into the final goal of achieving a digital economy, the Economic Survey, however, said the journey is far from complete, adding that a lot remains to be accomplished to realise its true potential.
“As a major reform measure, the Indian Telegraph Right of Way (Amendment) Rules, 2022, will facilitate faster and easier deployment of telegraph infrastructure to enable speedy 5G rollout. The government has brought in procedural reforms in Wireless Licensing, including delicensing of various frequency bands to promote innovation, manufacturing and export,” it read.

5G smartphones shipments to increase in 2023
As per a report by Counterpoint Research, 5G smartphone shipments in India will exceed that of 4G shipments by the end of 2023. This adoption will be driven by the launch of 5G services. “India’s 5G smartphone shipments are estimated to grow 81% YoY in 2022 driven by their expanding presence in lower price bands (less than Rs 20,000) and rollout of 5G networks in the latter half of the year,” said Counterpoint’s India Market Outlook.