Jio and Airtel add 3,500 5G Sites Per Week While Reliance Jio has announced plans to cover the entire country with 5G by December next year, Bharti Airtel aims to do so by March 2024

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are adding around 3,500 sites per week, as they ramp up their 5G network rollout. Both the telcos are set to further scale up site additions to 9,000-10,000 per week combined in the coming three-four months, said an ET report, citing executives aware of the matter.

"Jio is preparing to add 5,000 to 6,000 sites per week in three-four months as the company aims to cover the entire country by the end of next year," ET reported.

While Reliance Jio did not comment on the number of sites installed per week, a spokesperson of the company said, "Jio is committed to rolling out 5G services across the country by 2023. This will be the fastest deployment of 5G services anywhere in the world. We have already upgraded our infrastructure and core network and the radio network is being expeditiously rolled out."

While Reliance Jio has announced plans to cover the entire country with 5G by December next year, Bharti Airtel aims to do so by March 2024, added the report.

According to the report, Jio's spokesperson further added that Jio will have the widest 5G coverage in India way ahead of the other operators and will offer the best 5G services to its customers.

A spokesperson for Bharti Airtel said, "Our 5G network rollout is happening as per plan. We are putting over 1,200 sites a week, which we plan to ramp up further."

Jio is currently adding around 2,500 sites per week. The intensity of Jio's rollout is more when compared with Airtel's as the telco is adding two base stations on a site (one for 700 MHz and another for 3300 MHz), the report further added.

Jio is rolling out its network in the standalone mode whereas Airtel is using non-standalone mode (NSA).