Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced that it had become the first telco to successfully demonstrate live 5G service over a commercial network in Hyderabad.

Taking on Reliance Jio, the New Delhi-based telco stated that it operated 5G & 4G concurrently over the existing liberalized spectrum in the 1800MHz band through the Non-Standalone (NSA) network technology. Airtel 5G is touted to deliver ten- times the velocity of existing network technologies, allowing users to download a full-length movie in a matter of seconds on a 5G phone.

Using dynamic spectrum sharing, Airtel seamlessly operated 5G and 4G concurrently within the same spectrum block. This demonstration has emphatically validated the 5G readiness of Airtel's network across all domains -- radio, core and transport. Airtel 5G is capable of delivering 10x speeds, 10x latency and 100x concurrency when compared to existing technologies. Specifically, in Hyderabad, users were able to download a full-length movie in a matter of seconds on a 5G phone.

Airtel said this demonstration has underlined the company's technology capabilities. The full impact of the 5G experience, however, will be available to customers when the adequate spectrum is available and government approvals received. "Every one of our investments is future-proofed as this game-changing test in Hyderabad proves," said Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and CEO.

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