Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal announced the company is planning to launch 5G services within a month. Airtel is aiming to have 5G network coverage in key metro cities by December.
“We expect to cover all of urban India by the end of 2023. If you want to know the availability of 5G in your town, you will be able to check it on the Airtel Thanks App and see whether your phone and city is 5G ready. This feature will be available on our app with the 5G launch,” Gopal Vittal said.
Airtel 5G will deliver higher speeds compared to a 4G network. It could be anywhere between 20 to 30 times the speed.
Gopal Vittal said that Airtel 5G will also enable differential quality for special requirements, something called network slicing.
Bharti Airtel last month paid Rs 8,312 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) towards dues for 5G spectrum acquired in the recently concluded 5G auctions. It said it has paid for four years of 2022 5G spectrum upfront.
Airtel has chosen a specific 5G technology for smartphones that has the widest ecosystem in the world.
“This means that all 5G smartphones in India will work on the Airtel 5G network without any glitch. This will be true even when you travel abroad with your Airtel 5G enabled phone. In other technologies, it is possible that as many as four out of ten 5G phones don’t support 5G,” Gopal Vittal said.
Reliance Jio plans to roll out 5G services by Diwali, which falls on October 24. Jio has committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore to build a pan-India true 5G network. Jio announced the launch of 5G services in four metro cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai.