Modi to launch 5G services on October 1 in select cities
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the much-awaited 5G services in India tomorrow, October 1, an official release said on Friday (September 30).
According to the release, 5G to be launched by the Prime Minister in select cities, will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years.
Explained: How street furniture will be roped in to stream 5G to you
The cumulative economic impact of 5G on India is estimated to reach $450 billion by 2035.
New opportunities
Capable of supporting ultra-high-speed internet services, the fifth generation or 5G is expected to unleash new economic opportunities and societal benefits, serving as a transformational force for Indian society.
“Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will launch 5G services in India on October 1, 2022 and also inaugurate the 6th Edition of India Mobile Congress 2022 to be held from October 1-4, 2022, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi,” the release added.
“The launch of 5G services follows years of intense preparation. Recently, 5G spectrum auctions were conducted successfully and 51,236 MHz was allocated to Telecom Service Providers with a gross revenue of ₹1,50,173 Crores. The auction aggregated the demand for a robust 5G ecosystem that can cater to its use cases involving IoT, M2M, AI, Edge Computing, Robotics etc,” the Ministry of Communications said in a press release.
5G offers speed multiple times faster than 4G, supports lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real time.
Also read:Â Airtel to launch 5G services in a month, existing SIMs will support 5G network
Besides powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), 5G can enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more-immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming, among others.
“5G can unleash new economic opportunities and societal benefits giving it the potential for being a transformational force for Indian society. It will help the country leapfrog the traditional barriers to development, spur innovations by startups and business enterprises as well as advance the Digital India vision,” the ministry said.
Spectrum auction
India’s biggest ever auction of telecom spectrum held recently had received a record ₹1.5 lakh crore of bids, with Mukesh Ambanis Jio cornering nearly half of all the airwaves sold with a ₹88,078 crore bid.
Telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel made a successful bid of ₹43,084 crore, while Vodafone Idea Ltd bought spectrum for ₹18,799 crore.
Gautam Adani’s group, whose entry in the auction was billed by some as another flashpoint in the rivalry with Ambani, paid ₹212 crore for 400 MHz. Adani group bought spectrum in the 26 GHz band, which is suitable for setting up a private network for end-to-end communication.
