5G Services in India by October, allocation by August 10, says centre
Major telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vi (formerly Vodafone-idea) have been already working on hardware to roll out their 5G services in the country. Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw previously said that 5G services will be rolled out to everyone by the end of the year. Now a new report coming from The Hindu BusinessLine reveals that PM Narendra Modi will officially launch the 5G network at the inauguration of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) on September 29.
The Indian government hasn’t officially announced the launch date of 5G yet, but the telecom minister said that the rollout would happen sometime around the month of October. This goes in line with the timeline of the IMC event. So, it could be possible that the PM will officially announce the launch of 5G services later next month.
The government recently completed the 5G spectrum auction and is already in the process of approval and allocation of the spectrum to telecom networks that bid. India’s spectrum auction for 5G has been valued at 1.5 lakh crores. In addition to the three major telecom giants Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vi — Adani Data Network also joined the auction this time.
Bharti Airtel has already said that it will start deploying the 5G network in India by the end of August and announced partnerships with tech companies like — Samsung, Nokia, and Ericsson. On the other hand, other reports suggest that Reliance will also unveil its 5G on 75th Independence Day (August 15)
As for the pricing, the 5G prices in India are expected to be competitive when compared to the rest of the world. Unlike what was previously reported, the 5G plans in India are expected to be priced on the same line as 4G plans. So, it is possible that the 5G plans initially will be priced aggressively for quick adoption. In the first phase, 5G services will roll out in 13 cities including — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune.