The launch of 5G in India might happen as soon as next month. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of telecom, has already urged service providers to prepare for the rollout of 5G following the issuing of letters allocating spectrum. On the same day that winning bidders for radio waves received upfront payments, the Department of Telecom (DoT) issued letters assigning specific frequencies. 13 Indian cities will receive high-speed Internet access in the first phase, according to the DoT. Here is a summary of what happened and what will happen in the next few days.
Initially, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune will receive 5G services. The telecom service providers (TSPs) Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Adani Data Networks, and Vodafone Idea have already paid the DoT a total of about Rs. 17,876 crores for the spectrum they just acquired in an auction. The service providers have already received the letters outlining the spectrum assignment. This indicates that once the service is ready, the providers may launch it.
According to reports, the official debut of 5G services will take place on September 29 to coincide with the IMC 2022's opening ceremony. Prior reports indicated that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will introduce the service on August 15; however, because TSPs and their vendors needed more time to prepare, it appears that the debut date was postponed.
In his speech on 5G on August 15, Modi mentioned that the service, which will provide 10 times faster speeds and lag-free connectivity, will start in India soon. People will be able to download stuff more rapidly and view movies without buffering thanks to high-speed Internet, as 5G can deliver rates up to 100 times faster than those of 4G.
“Now we are stepping towards the era of 5G... won't have to wait for long. We are taking optical fibre to every village. I have full knowledge that the dream of Digital India will pass through villages. I am happy that India's 4 lakh common service centres are developing in villages. Country can boast of 4 lakh digital entrepreneurs getting ready in villages and people in villages becoming habitual of taking services from them," Modi said.
Earlier this month, telecom provider Bharti Airtel asserted that by March 2024, 5G services would be available in all major cities and rural areas of the nation. "We plan to roll out 5G starting in August and quickly expand it to all of India. We anticipate being able to cover every town and important rural area with 5G by March 2024. In reality, there are entire plans in place for the development of the network in 5,000 Indian towns. In our history, this will be one of our largest rollouts, Vittal remarked on the earnings call for the company.
Vi has also been alerting its customers that it is now working on upgrading to 5G and that this will improve coverage in Delhi-NCR and make the user experience "excellent." The 5G spectrum auction saw Reliance Industries Jio emerge as the highest bidder, and it was awarded airwaves worth $11 billion (approximately Rs. 87,800 crores) for providing the high-speed wireless network.
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