Airtel to launch 5G services in a month, existing SIMs will support 5G network
Telecom major Airtel on Monday announced that 5G will go live within a month. With a plan to cover all major metro cities by the end of the year, the network provider said 5G will be available in all urban parts of the country by the end of 2023. Also, the company said, 5G will be available in towns and key rural areas by March of 2024.
In a letter to the customers, Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said, “We expect to launch our 5G services within a month. By December, we should have coverage in key metros. After that, we will expand rapidly to cover the entire country. We expect to cover all of urban India by the end of 2023.”
Also read: 5G roll-out would precede its meaningful adoption in India: Credit Suisse
Last month, major telecom network providers, including Airtel, Vodafone and Jio, had announced they will be bringing 5G in the coming months.
As per Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal, Airtel 5G will deliver significantly higher speeds as compared to a 4G network. According to him, it could be anywhere between 20 to 30 times the speed of 4G network.
No need to change SIM
Airtel has announced that everyone who upgraded their SIM to 4G won’t need to upgrade their SIMs since it already supports 5G. Those interested in knowing if and when their area will get 5G can check it on the Airtel Thanks app to know if their city and phone are 5G ready.
However, the telecom major advised customers to buy a new 5G phone if they have a model which is older than one year.
Non-Standalone 5G
During the 5G spectrum bidding process, Airtel spent Rs 43,084 crore and paid instalments for the next four years which amounts to somewhere around Rs 8,312.4 crore. It is working in partnership with Nokia, Samsung and Ericsson to set up 5G infrastructure in the country.
It looks like Airtel will not be installing infrastructure from scratch and use Non-Standalone 5G while Jio is going with Standalone 5G, which offers more speed, according to media reports.
Also read: Jio 5G to launch in 4 cities by Diwali; pan-India coverage by December 2023
The biggest spender in the auction, Reliance Jio also announced during its Annual General Meeting that it will be launching 5G in major cities in October this year.
