Airtel 5G now in Delhi, Mumbai and 6 other cities — Sunil Bharti Mittal says will cover India by March 2024

Mittal also hailed the contribution of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards realising this 5G vision, saying that the country is proud and fortunate to have a leader who understands technology well.

"It was the Prime Minister's vision of Digital India that enabled the country to survive the pandemic. India's digital mediums ensured the country did not stop for a single minute due to lockdowns," Mittal told the audience.

Sunil Bharti Mittal forayed into the telecom space when he discovered a push-button phone in Taiwan in October 1982. He highlighted that after four decades in the telecom industry, Airtel will now serve the country with 5G services.

Mittal also commended the Prime Minister for his push to make India a manufacturing hub via Make in India. "Never in my life had I thought that India would be able to have manufacturing, especially in electronics. But today, it is becoming a reality," he said.

Bharti Airtel added the most number of wireless subscribers in June, adding 793,000 subscribers, taking its total subscriber base to 362.9 million. The company has already paid Rs 8,312 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) towards dues for the spectrum acquired by the company in the recently concluded 5G auctions.

"Airtel has paid four years of 2022 spectrum dues upfront. The company believes that this upfront payment coupled with the moratorium on spectrum dues and AGR-related payments for four years will free up future cash flows and allow Airtel to dedicate resources to single-mindedly concentrate on the 5G rollout," the company said last month.