🇬🇧 EN 🇳🇴 NO
← Back to EMF Signal Mint
Regulatory Policy

🇮🇳 Mint on India's 5G EMF-limit doubling: fewer new towers, biggest benefit to Vodafone Idea

August 30, 2026 (EMFS)
Aug 29, 2026 (original)
Source: Mint
Source category: Press
AI use
Mint, a leading Indian business daily, reads India's plan to double the 5G tower EMF limit, from 5 to 10 watts per square metre from next month, through the operator-economics lens. Higher permitted power density lets each tower cover more ground, so operators can build fewer new sites and reduce network-deployment costs. Vodafone Idea (India's third-largest telecom operator, still catching up on its 5G rollout after the 2018 Vodafone-Idea merger) stands to gain the most because it can design its remaining buildout around the higher limits. Bharti Airtel (second-largest) and Reliance Jio (largest, owned by Reliance Industries) can extract more coverage and traffic from their existing 5G sites at lower incremental capex.

"The government is set to relax electromagnetic field (EMF) limits for mobile networks, bringing India's norms in line with international standards and potentially allowing telecom operators to expand coverage with fewer tower sites, The Economic Times reported."

— Prabhakar Jha, Mint

"The revised rules will take effect next month and raise the permitted power density for a 5G base transceiver station (BTS) to 10 watts per square metre, from the existing 5 watts per square metre."

— Prabhakar Jha, Mint

"The higher limit could allow telecom operators to get more coverage from each tower."

— Prabhakar Jha, Mint

"Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, which have already deployed a large part of their 5G networks, could also benefit through lower incremental capital expenditure and more efficient use of existing sites."

— Prabhakar Jha, Mint

Location

📍 India

Map: India

Source

Govt eases 5G radiation limits, says report | Will new EMF rules help telecom operators cut costs? | Mint www.livemint.com

📰 News Event

India doubles 5G tower EMF power-density limit from 5 to 10 W/m²

2026-08-29

The Indian government moves to double the permitted power density for 5G base transceiver stations, aligning national EMF limits with the ICNIRP-recommended level; effective from September 2026.

📎 Also covered by

More on this topic