5G turns 4: Despite rapid expansion, coverage remains uneven across India

Step out of a metro and onto a highway, and the country’s 5G story quickly shifts from blazing speeds to buffering screens. Four years after launch, the country’s telecom networks present a tale of two experiences: dense urban pockets with strong, stable signals, and vast stretches where connectivity drops, fluctuates or disappears altogether. For millions of users, access to 5G still depends less on coverage claims and more on whether a tower happens to be within reach.