5G Hits Concrete Wall? Bhubaneswar, Cuttack Lead Odisha's Telecom Complaint Surge Despite Near-100% Mobile Coverage| Exclusive

Bhubaneswar: In a classic case of urbanisation impacting telecom signal, with the introduction of 5G in Odisha, the dissatisfaction among denizens over poor telecom service quality in Odisha's two top-of-the-cream cities – Capital Bhubaneswar and Cuttack – has touched a new high.

Data tabled in the Rajya Sabha in response to a query on telecom service quality in Odisha reveals a striking urban paradox.

Even as Khordha (which includes Bhubaneswar) and Cuttack have achieved almost universal mobile coverage, complaints registered on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) have surged sharply.

Khordha recorded 252 complaints in 2025-26, up from 186 in 2021-22, while Cuttack witnessed an even steeper jump from 116 to 213 complaints during the same period. Together, the two districts accounted for 465 complaints in FY26, a 54.5% rise over the 302 complaints recorded in FY22, making them the State's biggest telecom grievance hotspots.

The figures also show that Khordha has emerged as Odisha's largest telecom grievance district with a cumulative 861 complaints over the last five financial years, followed by Cuttack with 596 complaints, despite both districts being among the best connected in terms of network availability.

The Wall to 5G

The complaint surge points towards an emerging challenge accompanying rapid urbanisation rather than inadequate telecom expansion.

Unlike remote districts where grievances primarily arise from absence of mobile coverage, only 15 villages in Khordha and 14 villages in Cuttack remain without network connectivity. This means the overwhelming majority of complaints from the twin cities relate to deteriorating Quality of Service (QoS) – including call drops, indoor signal weakness, network congestion, slow internet speeds and unstable data connectivity.

Industry experts attribute much of this to the rapid commercial rollout of 5G in densely populated urban corridors.

While 5G promises higher speeds, its higher-frequency spectrum has lower penetration capability through reinforced concrete structures.

As Bhubaneswar and Cuttack witness a boom in high-rise apartments, commercial complexes and dense residential clusters, these concrete structures increasingly create micro-level signal blind spots, weakening indoor coverage.

The data indicates that the stress became most visible during 2024-25, when Khordha's annual complaints jumped to 202 from 80 in the previous year – an increase of 152.5%. Cuttack experienced an even sharper rise, with complaints soaring from 55 to 147, marking a 167.2% spike in a single year. The timing coincides with aggressive commercial scaling of 5G services across Odisha's urban centres.

The problem is compounded by heavy urban data consumption. As more subscribers migrate to 5G while millions of devices continue operating on 4G, telecom operators are required to continuously optimise spectrum usage, often resulting in congestion during peak hours.

Recognising these urban challenges, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has tightened its Quality of Service framework.

Operators are required to maintain a call drop rate below 2% across the Licensed Service Area (LSA), while at least 90% of urban cell sites must keep call drops below 3% for 95% of operational days in a quarter.

To improve urban coverage, TRAI has also emphasised deployment of small cells mounted on electric poles, traffic signals, bus shelters and other street infrastructure instead of relying solely on conventional telecom towers.

The regulator has further mandated that permissions under the National Right of Way (RoW) framework should ideally be cleared within 60 days to facilitate faster installation of telecom infrastructure in congested cities.

Failure to meet QoS norms attracts financial penalties ranging from ₹1 lakh per parameter for first-time violations, increasing to ₹2 lakh for repeated non-compliance, while deliberate misreporting of network performance can invite penalties of up to ₹10 lakh.

Interestingly, the Ministry of Communications informed Parliament that major telecom operators, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, continue to meet TRAI's macro-level Quality of Service benchmarks for the Odisha Licensed Service Area.

However, the apparent contradiction is explained by TRAI's methodology. The regulator assesses performance across the entire Odisha telecom circle over monthly or quarterly periods. Consequently, severe congestion affecting a handful of towers in busy localities of Bhubaneswar or Cuttack can get statistically diluted when averaged with thousands of better-performing rural towers.

To address this gap, TRAI's Standards of Quality of Service Regulations, 2024, seek to shift monitoring towards more frequent monthly assessments while placing greater emphasis on detecting and penalising localised cell-site failures.

The Top 5 and Bottom 5

The Rajya Sabha data also highlights a sharp divide between Odisha's urban telecom quality challenges and rural connectivity gaps.

Among districts with the biggest infrastructure deficits, Rayagada tops the list with 129 uncovered villages, besides recording 405 cumulative consumer complaints. It is followed by Kandhamal with 112 uncovered villages and 368 complaints, Malkangiri with 103 uncovered villages, Kalahandi with 92 uncovered villages and 124 complaints, and Koraput with 85 uncovered villages and 168 complaints.

On the other hand, Odisha's best-performing districts in terms of mobile coverage are Jharsuguda, which has achieved 100% village connectivity, Balasore with only one uncovered village, Jagatsinghpur with two, and Bargarh and Dhenkanal, each having only four villages without mobile coverage.

The comparison underlines Odisha's emerging digital divide. Coastal and developed districts now have less than 1% of villages outside mobile coverage, while several southern and western districts continue to struggle with connectivity because of difficult terrain and dispersed habitations.

1,091 Villages Still Await Mobile Connectivity

The Parliamentary data shows Odisha has 51,176 villages, of which 50,085 are already covered by mobile networks, leaving 1,091 villages still without connectivity.

The largest number of uncovered villages is concentrated in difficult geographical regions such as Rayagada (129), Kandhamal (112), Malkangiri (103), Kalahandi (92) and Koraput (85). In contrast, Khordha has only 15 uncovered villages and Cuttack 14, reinforcing that the telecom challenge in Odisha's two largest urban centres is no longer one of coverage but one of network quality.

The figures indicate that while government-backed initiatives such as the 4G Saturation Project and Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) are steadily bridging rural connectivity gaps, telecom operators face a new challenge in Odisha's expanding urban landscape, ensuring that the promise of 5G is not undermined by concrete skylines, indoor signal attenuation and mounting consumer expectations. 

Also Read: Odisha Sees Steady Growth in Telecom and Broadband Connectivity; Mobile Number Portability Requests Rise in May| Special Report