5G telecom services will be rolled out in several major cities throughout the country in 2022.
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Cities And Telcos Involved
Cities that will get a glimpse of the futuristic tech include Gurugram, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, and Gandhinagar.
Leading telcos Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have already commenced trials in these cities, in partnership with telecom equipment makers such as Ericsson and Nokia.
Why These Cities?
These cities were chosen due to their higher telecom services penetration, which makes it easier to win the acceptance of the public.
The pricing aspect is another reason, since these areas have consumers which would find the new services affordable.
A third reason is the flexibility of testing areas in the cities such as walled complexes and open spaces.
5G is the newest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
5G Vs 4G
4G was a major step forward seeing as it allowed people to stream audio and video on the go.
5G takes it a step further and will connect many more types of devices than smartphones and offers far higher speed and capacity.
Apart from the major telcos, the government will also play an active role in facilitating the rollout of 5G services.
The Department of Telecom has roped in leading research institutions for development and testing of 5G technology.
Project Benefits
They are all involved in the Rs 224 crore- research project called ‘Indigenous 5G Test bed project’, funded by the Department of Telecom.
The project commenced in 2018 and is set to be completed by December 31, 2021.
It will enable development, testing and proliferation of 5G technology system components, cross-sectoral use cases.
It will also establish the foundation for the development of “6G Technology landscape” in the country.
Launch
There is no confirmed timeline for the 5G launch yet.
What we do know is that the auction of 5G spectrum would take place in March or April next year.
But this could be delayed by at least one quarter since telcos are yet to finish trials and testing of various aspects.
Speeds
5G mainly works in 3 bands, low, mid, and high-frequency spectrum.
- Low band spectrum
The speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second), suitable for those having low demand for high speed internet.
- Mid-band spectrum
It offers higher speeds than the low band but is limited in terms of area coverage and signal penetration.
This may be used by industries and specialised factory units for building captive networks.
- High-band spectrum
Internet speed reaches as high as 20 Gbps (gigabits per second), but is held back by extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
For perspective, the highest internet speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.
The disparity is such because 4G is designed mostly for phones, whereas 5G networks are designed for much more flexible use, removing the need for many special-purpose networks.
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