An official statement from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) stated that Telecom operators are all ready to launch 5G services in the country by 2022.
Which cities will receive the services?
As per the statement, 13 cities in India are going to receive 5G services first, followed by the others. These cities are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Delhi, and Mumbai.
“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 in the release. Reportedly, more cities will be included in the 5G list soon.
Telecom Operators yet to be confirmed
The release, however, didn’t mention which telecom operator will be the first in the country to roll the 5G services commercially. Although, all the three companies namely Airtel, Vi, and Jio have already set up trial sites in the 13 cities listed by DoT.
“A reference has been sent to TRAI in September 2021 to seek recommendations for the auction of spectrum identified for 5G with respect to the reserve price, band plan, block size, the quantum of spectrum to be auctioned, and the conditions of auctions in various bands (526-698 MHZ,700 MHZ, 800 MHZ, 900 MHZ, 1800 MHZ, 2100 MHZ, 2300 MHZ, 2500 MHZ, 3300-3670 MHZ, and 24.25-28.5 GHz) for public 5G and private 5G networks”, the department added.
