Following speculation about the rollout of the 5G network in India, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) confirmed on Monday that the 5G network will be available in India by 2022. The Department of Transportation stated that 13 cities across the country will receive 5G service in the beginning. Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune are among these cities. Airtel, Jio, and Vi conducted 5G trials in the majority of these cities earlier this year.
“Costing Rs 224 crore, the project is likely to be completed by December 31, 2021, paving the way for end-to-end testing of 5G (/topic/5g) User Equipments (UEs) and network equipment by 5G (/topic/5g) stakeholders developing 5G (/topic/5g) products/services/use cases, including indigenous start-ups, SMEs, Academia and Industry in the country,” DoT said.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) also stated that in September 2021, a reference was sent to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) seeking recommendations for the auction of spectrum identified for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)/ 5G in terms of a reserve price, band plan, block size, the quantum of spectrum to be auctioned, and auction conditions.
The experimental spectrum is divided into three bands: mid-band (3.2 GHz to 3.67 GHz), millimeter-wave band (24.25 GHz to 28.5 GHz), and sub-gigahertz band (700 GHz). TSPs were also permitted to conduct 5G trials using their existing spectrum (800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2500 MHz).
5G technology is expected to improve user experience by delivering 10 times the data download rates of 4G, up to three times the spectrum efficiency, and ultra-low latency to enable Industry 4.0.
5G applications span a wide range of industries, including agriculture, education, health, transportation, traffic management, smart cities, smart homes, and numerous IoT applications (Internet of Things).
