After a long wait, 5G services are finally going to make their commercial debut in India tomorrow, October 1, 2022. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the services at the India Mobile Congress show. This is going to be the second major step related to the implementation of 5G services in the country, as previously, the 5G spectrum mega auctions took place in August, where the telecom giants bid up to 1.56 lakh crores.
5G trials have already been conducted in India, and the brands are ready for the expansion of their network. It is also being said that tycoons like Sunil Bharti Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, and Kumar Manglam Birla are supposed to be a part of the event too. Rumours suggest that Airtel and Jio will also roll out their 5G services that will be limited to a few cities in their initial phase. However, one thing to keep in mind at this time is that the companies have not confirmed anything officially.
As claimed by these telecom giants, the pan-India rollout of 5G will be completed by 2023 to 2024 if the industry is safe from any restrictions or considerably halts. There is no clarity regarding the fact to what extent Indian customers will be able to use 5G until now. However, it was declared a day ago that the users would be able to experience the network at Delhi’s IGI Airport starting from tomorrow as it will be 5G ready.
5G India launch expectations
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will officially inaugurate the 5G network in India at the Indian Mobile Congress. The Jio 5G services will be available in India in selected cities, including Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and a few other cities by Diwali. Another major statement by the telcos is that the 5G rollout in India will be completed by the end of December 2023. Jio is also planning to invest an amount of around Rs 2 lakh crore to create its pan-India network.
On the other hand, Airtel has said that it will complete its 5G rollout by 2023-24 and has also made network agreements with brands like Nokia, Samsung, and Erricson for the deployment of 5G. In the bidding, Airtel acquired a 19867.8MHz spectrum and 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 3300MHz, and 26GHz frequencies in the spectrum. Now, details regarding the same suggest that the pricing of 5G plans by telecom will lie somewhere around that we pay for 4G. However, the readers are supposed to take this information with a pinch of salt as there is no official announcement regarding the pricing of the plans.
Moreover, speculations are that the prices of 4G smartphones in the country are going to be decreased as soon as the 5G connectivity roll out will acquire a decent pace. Not only this, but it will also be interesting to see how these telecom giants will make people shift from 4G to 5G services if the price difference between the two is decent.
