• 5G India rollout: Government plans to cover over 200 cities by next year

    Sci & Tech
    5G India rollout: Government plans to cover over 200 cities by next year

    Contrarily, 4G only offered us download and upload rates of 50.5Mbps and 1.87Mbps, respectively. Even though this 5G speed result is not as high as what Ookla saw in its 5G trials, it is still positive to have better internet connections.

    Digital Desk: 5G services were rolled out earlier this month in fewer cities in India and more are expected to get in the coming months. By March 2023, at least 4 cities in Odisha, according to Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, would get 5G service. According to the government official, it will be fully accessible across the entire state by the end of the next year.

    By March 2023, four to five cities in Odisha would get 5G service, and by the end of the following year, almost 80% of the state will be served, he said.

    Vaishnaw has further claimed that the government intends to expand 5G services to other towns and rural areas when it covers more than 200 cities by March of next year. These cities' names are currently a mystery. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) initially stated that 13 significant cities would get 5G first. But this did not take place.

    In the beginning, Reliance Jio only provided 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi. On the other side, Airtel succeeded in expanding the 5G rollout to other cities. These include Chennai, Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Bangalore. The telcos did state that as other cities become 5G ready, they will roll out support for 5G there.

    According to reports, 5G would have a maximum data transfer speed of up to 20Gbps, or more than 100Mbps. In comparison, 4G offers speeds of up to 1Gbps. In our tests at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) event, Airtel 5G provided us with download speeds of 306 Mbps and upload speeds of 25.4 Mbps. 

    Contrarily, 4G only offered us download and upload rates of 50.5Mbps and 1.87Mbps, respectively. Even though this 5G speed result is not as high as what Ookla saw in its 5G trials, it is still positive to have better internet connections.

    The 5G services offered by Vodafone Idea are still unknown. Due to the telcos' ongoing 5G testing across India, none of the firms have yet disclosed the prices for their 5G plans, hence they are all presently providing the newest network for free.