The government of India will announce the start of 5G services at the India Mobile Congress on October 1, according to the National Broadband Mission, which is part of the Ministry of Communications.
The idea is anticipated to be revealed at the event during a joint presentation by Sunil Mittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel, Ravinder Takkar, CEO of Vodafone Idea India, and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of India’s Reliance Industries.
Reports state that the 5G service deployment will start in seven cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, and that nationwide coverage will be attained in two years.
On August 1, the 5G spectrum auction in India came to an end with local operators having spent a total of $19 billion on spectrum.
Spectrum was purchased for $11 billion by Reliance Jio, $5.4 billion by Airtel, $2.4 billion by Vodafone, and $27 million by Adani, who would utilize it to provide services over a private 5G network.
Airtel intends to start rolling out 5G in major cities before doing it progressively over the entire nation. Bharti Airtel has finished rolling out 5G in the top 5,000 cities and aims to serve the entire country by March 2024. In order to launch 5G deployments, the corporation recently secured 5G network agreements with Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung.
Vodafone Idea stated that a number of variables, including the development of use cases, consumer demand, and competition dynamics, will affect the introduction of its 5G services in the nation.
“Vodafone Idea aggressively participated in the 5G spectrum auction and obtained the midband 5G spectrum in 17 priority circles and millimeter wave 5G spectrum in 16 circles,” said Ravinder Takkar, non-executive chairman of Vodafone Idea. This will make it possible for Vodafone Idea to start rolling out 5G nationwide.
Reliance Jio Infocomm announced at its annual shareholders meeting this year that it will spend $24.5 billion on its 5G rollout and that it hopes to offer the service in every Indian town by the end of 2023.