New Delhi, July 14 -- Bharti Airtel Ltd has said that 5G monetization remains a challenge because of the lack of compelling customer use cases, underscoring why telecom operators have yet to recover their investments in spectrum and network rollouts four years after the technology's launch.

"5G data is currently offered free for all postpaid customers and select prepaid users with unlimited packs at certain price points," India's second-largest telecom operator said in its FY26 annual report released on 11 July.

Airtel bought 5G spectrum worth Rs.43,084 crore in the August 2022 auction, about half of Reliance Jio's Rs.88,078 crore purchase. The company has since spent about Rs.1.45 trillion on capital expenditure in India, including the...