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India ahead of Europe in true 5G as per PolicyTacker report
It found out that India gets 20 percent true 5G access, placing it well ahead of Finland's 15 percent, Spain's 10 percent and UK's 4 percent.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Fri, 07, Nov 2025
- 01:51 EST
- 19
Representative image / Pexels
In a momentous nod to India's telecommunications ecosystem, a research by spectrum experts PolicyTracker, found out that India is more advanced than many European countries in offering 5G connectivity to mobile internet users.
The study found that Indian consumers were the most likely to get the latest standalone version of the mobile technology and the least likely to be short-changed with an inferior network.
Indian users get access to 5G standalone (5G SA), the version of 5G that operates independently from the previous generation 4G ecosystem while most European users continue to rely on 5G non-standalone (5G NSA).
PolicyTracker dubs 5G NSA as 'fake 5G' as it shows a 5G icon on connected mobile devices, when in reality, they are connected to 4G on a base station which could potentially offer 5G. This, according to the research team, is misleading to the user.
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For users, 5G SA means faster speeds, greater capacity and lower latency. 5G NSA, on the other hand, while an improvement over 4G, still uses the 4G computer network and therefore offers limited speed, reduced capacity and higher latency.
The tests, carried out using the SignalTracker app, collected data from May to October 2025. It found that India topped data charts with 20 percent 5G SA access, placing it well ahead of Finland's 15 percent, Spain's 10 percent and UK's 4 percent.
They also pointed out that Indian telecom brands were more transparent with users about the type of network. The research showed that 5G icons were shown incorrectly only 5 percent of the times, which is much lower than what was observed in data from the other countries.
However, download speeds in India are a more mixed picture. India performs well in 5G NSA, producing the second highest average, 107 Mbps beaten only by Finland with 229 Mbps. But in 5G SA speed tests, India had the lowest average, 44.19 Mbps.
Talking about findings about India's 5G ecosystem, PolicyTracker said in a statement, "India’s performance in 5G is impressive. While many European countries are predominantly providing 5G NSA, India is leapfrogging the interim stage and has shot ahead to primarily offering 5G SA."
It added, "This could have important benefits for economic development, meaning faster speeds, better network capacity and new industrial services based on network slicing, which requires 5G SA."
India has established a 5G ecosystem that relies on superior technology and transparency. Even though it ranks lower than its peers in terms of speed, it has created the technology interface that will enable it to transform into a global connectivity leader.
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