In 2022, 5G telecom services will be available in a few places across India. Gurugram, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, and Gandhinagar are among the cities slated to receive 5G telecom services in 2022.
In these cities, leading telecom service providers Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea have set up 5G testing sites. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said on Monday that “these Metros and significant cities will be the first areas in the country to start 5G services next year.”
Long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks have been upgraded to 5G. While 4G was a significant step forward in terms of allowing users to stream music and video on the move, 5G is meant to link a far wider range of devices than smartphones and provides significantly faster speeds and capacity. Apart from the major telecom carriers and smartphone manufacturers, the government is actively assisting in the deployment of 5G services. For the development and testing of 5G technology, the Department of Telecom has enlisted the help of major research institutes.
The ‘Indigenous 5G Testbed project’ involves eight agencies: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bengaluru, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER), and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).
The initiative to build an indigenous 5G testbed began in 2018 and is expected to be finished by December 31, 2021. The Department of Telecom provided funding for the research. This project has cost the department Rs224 crore. “The project, which will cost Rs 224 crore and will be completed by December 31, 2021, will pave the way for end-to-end testing of 5G User Equipment (UEs) and network equipment by 5G stakeholders developing 5G products/services/use cases in the country, including indigenous start-ups, SMEs, academia, and industry,” the Department of Telecom said.
