Bharti Airtel Ltd can now run 5G services over its existing commercial networks as it has become the first telecom service provider that proved its ability to roll out 5G wireless services in India.
Bharti Airtel Ltd is now ahead of its competitor Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd run by Mukesh Ambani in the race of launching 5G wireless services. Reliance Jio had a plan of launching 5G services this year, Mukesh Ambani had mentioned in the previous year that Jio gas built an indigenous 5G solution and by 2nd half of this year 2021 they would launch the services. But Jio is still yet to finish it’s trial run while Airtel has successfully completed it’s trial.
On 28th January 2021, Airtel made an announcement that it had conducted on-field trials in Hyderabad in order to establish its ability to provide 5G services as this will make way for fast internet speeds and power IoT applications, like cars without a driver.
In a press conference chief executive of Bhartiya Airtel Gopal Vittal mentioned that ” we are the first telco to successfully demonstrate and orchestrate a live 5G service over a commercial network in Hyderabad. The demonstration emphatically validates the 5G readiness of Airtel’s network across all domains radio, core and transport”. mint news reported.
In Hyderabad Airtel used 1,800MHz spectrum band to operate both 5G and 4G at a time on its network. Therefore the telecom company claims that it is capable of performing 10 times better on speed and latency in comparison with current technologies. As per Gopal Vittal’s statement, the company could download a full length movie in just a few seconds with the help of 5G network. But the customers can enjoy the benefits only when there is adequate spectrum available along with the government approvals.
The experts say that for 5G network services any band could be used by upgrading the equipment and technology. The telecommunication companies will have to use bands in the range of 3,300MHz to 3,600MHz in order to provide best high speed services to its customers.
According to the reports, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will conduct the auction of 2,251MHz of spectrum at a reverse price of around 3.92 trillion rupees from 1st of March 2021. 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1,800MHz, 2,100MHz, 2,300MHz and 2,500MHz are the bands for sale.
