India, June 19 -- India's rapidly growing appetite for data, driven by 5G adoption and emerging artificial intelligence (AI)-powered applications, is placing unprecedented demands on the country's digital infrastructure. According to Kunal Bajaj, Co-Founder and CEO of CloudExtel, traditional telecom network models are no longer sufficient to support the scale, speed and complexity of future connectivity requirements. In an interview with Voice&Data, Bajaj discusses the growing role of shared and neutral-host infrastructure, the evolution of Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), the economics of 5G deployment, and the investments needed to build resilient, future-ready networks across India.

Data consumption continues to grow at an extraordinary p...