5G launch in India has officially been announced by Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The services will initially be available in a handful of cities, meaning that you won’t be able to access 5G pan-India. Jio, Airtel, and Vi all have been working for long towards making the network that can virtually connect everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices such as 5G-capable smartphones a reality in the country. Higher multi-Gbps speeds, lower latency, and more reliability compared to the previous-generation mobile networks are some of the benefits of the fifth-generation network. The network also presents use cases against AR/VR, AI, and high-speed broadband, among others to users. Countries like the US, South Korea, Europe, and China have already raced ahead in 5G deployments. Will India join the bandwagon of 5G countries in 2022? Read on to find out
Here are some of the benefits of 5G
- Improves network connectivity
- Offers multi-Gbps speed
- Has low latency
- Is more reliable than current mobile networks
- Supports a greater number of connected devices such as self-driving cars, gaming, remote surgeries, and other IoT devices
When will 5G launch in India?
The Indigenous 5G testbed project, funded by the telecom department, has reached its last stage and is likely to be completed by December 31st, 2021. Following this, the 5G services will start rolling out in India.
DoT in a press statement has confirmed that the 5G services will be available in as many as 13 cities across the country in 2022. These cities include Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, and Gandhi Nagar. All three major telecom operators, Jio, Airtel, and Vi (Vodafone Idea), have already set up 5G trial sites in these cities.
- 5G is coming to India in 2022
- The government has announced that the services will be available in as many as 13 cities
- 5G trial sites have been setup by Jio, Airtel, and Vi
5G frequency bands in India
The 5G frequency bands are currently unavailable in India. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is hosting 700 MHz to 2,500 MHz auctions in March 2021, but that would be inadequate and adversely impact the 5G rollout in the country, as per Indian telecom operators. The telcos recommend the spectrum sale of 3,300-3,600MHz, which is envisaged for the 5G network.
Jio 5G plans
Jio will pioneer the 5G network revolution in India. The company’s chairman Mukesh Ambani has announced that it’ll take the lead on the network in the country by launching 5G in the second half of 2021. Jio claims that it’ll easily upgrade to 5G network from 4G, owing to the telco’s converged network infrastructure. Jio’s 5G will be powered by the indigenously developed network, hardware and technology components, Ambani added. It’s believed that the telco may buy 700MHz in the upcoming auction to fulfil its 5G ambitions, unless the government announced the auction of 3300-3600MHz, which is globally popular for 5G deployments at the moment, before March 2021. Jio is also slated to launch.
Airtel 5G plans
Airtel is yet to reveal its plans to launch 5G in the country. The company believes that the next generation of mobile technology needs more time to be rolled out across the country. As per Airtel chief executive Gopal Vittal, the 5G ecosystem in the country is underdeveloped right now and that spectrum is expensive. “The fundamental issue with 5G is spectrum cost, which is way over the top,” he added.
That said, the telco is 5G-ready. Airtel announced the deployment of India’s first state-of-the-art Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology, which is a key enabler for 5G networks, in 2017. The company has already deployed the technology in Bangalore, Kolkata, and several other regions in the country.
Vi 5G plans
Vi aka Vodafone Idea is all set to roll out 5G in India as soon as the spectrum is made available through auction. The company has upgraded its 4G network with 5G architecture and other technologies like dynamic spectrum refarming (DSR) and MIMO. “Our network is very much 5G-ready. When the 5G auction takes place, we will be able to launch 5G. However, there is a need to develop India 5G use cases. India is unique and some global use cases might not be relevant,” Vodafone Idea MD and CEO Ravinder Takkar said during the AGM meeting last year. The telco has also proposed 5G trials with multiple vendors, including Huawei and Ericsson.
BSNL 5G plans
State-owned telco BSNL’s 5G plans remain a mystery at the moment. The company did announce back in 2019 that it’ll come up with a novel 5G corridor in Delhi, but there hasn’t been any update on the matter since then. The corridor would showcase the possible use of new technology with the optimum data speeds at 5G levels, BSNL Chairman Anupama Shrivastava told ETT then, adding that the telco is also putting up an in-house test centre.
Developing…
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