India To Toll Out 5G Telecom Network Soon

India is all set and geared up for the rollout of 5G services by October.

"5G telecom services to be launched in India very soon and the government's target will be to cover the entire country within 2 years",

said Union Electronics and Information Technology minister Sri. Ashwini Vaishnaw at an event on Sunday in New Delhi, India.

Spectrum allocation letters were issued to all the telecom service providers in mid-August asking them to prepare for the rollout of 5G services. After completing the spectrum allotment, India is now in the final stage to roll out high-speed 5G telecom services.

Reliance Jio had already announced it's willingness to launch the high-speed 5G telecom services by Diwali this year atleast in four metro cities, i.e., Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. However, the industry's push is to roll-out in 13 cities, namely, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai & Pune.

After the initial launch, expansion of 5G network would cover each and every Districts & Taluks across the country, expectedly by the end of 2023 which is in about a total of 1.5 years.

About 5G network and differences from 3G and 4G connectivity.

5G, as the name itself being the abbreviation for fifth-generation mobile network, that is capable of transmitting a large set of data at a very high speed.

If compared 3G and 4G, the 5G connectivity has a very low latency (latency is the delay of exchange of data) which translates to a better user experience of the internet.

With a 5G network rollout, Indian industries & businesses can propel their progress much faster than present rate as the delay in many key areas of communication translated to delayed rendered services. It is also expected to bring more development in remote data monitoring in sectors such as mining, warehousing, telemedicine, and manufacturing, among others which demands high-speed communication network access for quicker processing and better quality of data (especially for the multimedia communications).

The major participants at the spectrum auction were Reliance Jio, Adani group, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea. It is also important to note that Gautam Adani-led Adani group, which recently forayed into the telecom sector, also participated in the bidding process of the 5G telecom spectrum auction.

With the auction, the government of India earned a modest amount of revenue from the bidders.

• Department of Telecom received total bids worth Rs 1.50 lakh crore from the recently concluded auction.
• Revenue from the auctions was initially estimated to be Rs 80,000-90,000 crore, however the bids earned almost twice the expectations.
• 5G services are expected to be about 10 times faster than 4G, however since the frequency it operates is on the higher spectrum, due to technical reasons, it demands 4 times the number of tower/antenna points for communication which translates for higher expenditure for the roll-out , which in turn would affect on a higher tariff rates.

If everything goes to plan, then High-speed 5G telecom services are expected to be offered in several cities by the end of the year 2022 in India.