New Delhi: Flanked by Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Kumar Mangalam Birla and other telecom players, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday October 01, 2022 launched 5g telephony services in India at the 6th Edition of India Mobile Congress 2022 (IMC) opened today at Pragati Madian in New Delhi.
The service will be initially available in 13 cities. As per the Telecom Ministry, 13 cities that will get 5G first (across operators) are:
Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Lucknow, and Pune.
Talking to media soon after the launch, Sunil Mittal said the Airtel 5G service will be available in eight cities from today i.e. Saturday October 01, 2022.
Reliance Jio on the other hand said it will roll out standalone 5G services in select cities in the country by Diwali. To build pan-India true 5G network, Jio has committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore.
"To begin with, Jio will launch 5G services in four metro cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai", Mukesh Ambani said while addressing the Mobile Congress Saturday.
"These will be expanded to other cities and towns in phases rapidly to cover the entire country by December 2023", he added.
Sunil Mittal said that Airtel 5G will reach every home by March 2024. Vodafone-Idea (Vi) is slightly far behind Jio and Airtel in the 5G race but the telecom operator said that it will rollout the 5G service very “soon”.
Jio 5G will be the world's largest and most advanced 5G network. Unlike other operators, Jio's 5G network will be stand alone with zero dependency on 4G network.
The three-fold advantage of standalone 5G architecture, largest and best mix of spectrum and Carrier Aggregation technology means that Jio 5G will be able to offer an unparalleled combination of coverage, capacity, quality and affordability.
With standalone 5G, Jio can deliver new and powerful services like low latency, massive machine-to-machine communication, 5G voice, Edge computing and network slicing, and metaverse.
Leading smartphone players on Saturday said that the 5G launch in India will unleash new economic opportunities and societal benefits for millions, especially in remote areas.
India is home to more than 500 million smartphone users and more than 100 million users with 5G-ready smartphones wish to upgrade to a 5G subscription in 2023, according to a latest Ericsson report.
Madhav Sheth, CEO realme India, VP, realme and President, realme International Business Group, told IANS that as the first brand to launch a 5G-enabled phone;
"We believe that 5G has the potential to bring together the entire ecosystem".
"This is why realme has dedicated 90 per cent of its research and development efforts to 5G technologies and devices. We have partnered with the leading telcos in India and have curated a host of bundle offers for our users," Sheth informed.
"We are also rolling out OTA updates for our devices to ensure that all our users can make the most of 5G," he added.
The Indian smartphone users are even willing to pay a 45 per cent premium for a plan bundled with novel experiences, the findings showed, which could be a delight for internet service providers ready with 5G, according to the Ericsson study.
Tasleem Arif, VP and R&D Head, OPPO India, said that after years of intense preparation, the launch of 5G will "serve as a transformational force for Indian society".
"Supreme data download rates, three times greater spectrum efficiency, and super low latency will empower India to experience use cases like seamless video calls, instant downloads and uploads and seamless gaming on the cloud," he mentioned.
As an innovator, this also brings a great opportunity, as "this will open gates for innovating for next-gen experience from India", Arif noted.
According to a report by Opensignal, 5G-enabled smartphone users in 30 Indian cities in India are getting 39.2 per cent to 59.3 per cent faster download speeds than those on non-5G phones.
Muralikrishnan B, President, Xiaomi India, said the market is constantly evolving and becoming digitally savvy by the day, and "5G has the power to transform, upgrade and uplift our nation".
"We have been working closely with various telecom operators for over two years and have extensively tested most of our models for usability. Having a strong understanding of SA and NSA network bands, we have rolled out devices that support some of the most anticipated bands," informed Muralikrishnan.
Online gaming, AR and VR experience along with content creation will take centre-stage with the launch of 5G services.
"In India, we have launched over 20 5G enabled models to date and currently have 7.5 million Xiaomi 5G users," he said.
Addressing the India Mobile Congress (IMC 2022) in the presence of industry leaders, including Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited; Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprise; Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group and others, Prime Minister Modi said that the summit might be global but its repercussions and directions are local.
Stressing on the technological growth that India has been witnessing in the last few years, the Prime Minister said:
"New India will not remain a mere consumer of technology. but it will play an active role in the development and implementation of that technology."
The Prime Minister pointed out that India was dependent on other countries for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies. But with 5G, India has created a new history.
"With 5G, India is setting a global standard in telecom technology for the first time," he remarked.
Talking about Digital India, the Prime Minister said that some people think that this is just a government scheme.
"But Digital India is not just a name, it is a big vision for the development of the country. The goal of this vision is to bring that technology to the common people, which works for the people, works by connecting with the people."
Focussing on the need for a holistic approach to Digital India, the Prime Minister elaborated: "We focused on four pillars, in four directions at once. First, the price of the device; second, digital connectivity; third, the cost of data; fourth, and most importantly, the idea of 'digital first'."
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