From waiting for videos to buffer, Indians went to creating their own content via smartphones after 4G was rolled out, and now another upgrade is in store. With 5G coming into effect, smartphone users will experience speed which is 10 times higher, as smart homes and smart cars will be connected to handsets in real-time. Indians will be able to experience this transformation once PM Narendra Modi rolls out 5G on Saturday, October 1.
The Prime Minister will launch the service in select cities during the sixth edition of the Indian Mobile Congress at Delhi's Pragati Maidan at about 10 AM. The event will be telecast live across India, and entrepreneurs as well as innovators will be present.
Building on 4G’s capabilities
As three major telcos Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea gear up to introduce 5G internet, the upgrade from 4G plans won’t be heavy on your pockets. This is because Airtel and Vodafone aren’t building standalone 5G infrastructure, and have developed it on top of the existing 4G infrastructure, hence spending less on the transition. Even though Reliance Jio has pumped in more capital to build a standalone 5G infrastructure, it won’t hike prices a lot from 4G to 5G, in order to compete with the other two for market share.
State-owned telco stuck in a bygone era
There are currently one crore Indians who own 5G compatible devices and are eagerly waiting for a rollout. It’s also notable that while PM Modi is rolling out 5G through private players, the state-owned BSNL hasn’t even moved on to 4G. Apart from telcos, Adani Data Networks has also secured the 5G spectrum for Rs 212 crore and plans to use it for data centres as well as a super app, where power, airport and gas retail services will be available.
Is 5G really that fast or is it all hype?
Now 5G is touted to be ten times faster than the 4G connections in use, but once network congestion and the location of a user are factored in, the real picture looks different. For instance, Airtel claims that its peak speed is 135 Mbps, but in real-world conditions, 5G via low-band frequencies is below 100 Mbps. Although it’ll load 4K videos instantly, the speed will be the same as what can be achieved with 4G working at full capacity, as has been seen in the US.
The infrastructure of 5G also needs to be strong enough to support 10 times higher bandwidth than the one in use for 4G. This is why, India needs 70 per cent fiberised towers for a full-fledged 5G rollout, but it only has 30 per cent so far, so do the math. Hence it’s clear that until telcos build standalone infrastructures after higher 5G adoption, the difference being promised won’t be visible.
What will it take?
The need for a whole new infrastructure is non-negotiable since 5G wavelengths have a 1000 feet range, which is 2 per cent of 4G. This means that the number of towers needs to be scaled up significantly to ensure strong signals for every consumer. Hence while 5G will be two to three times faster than 4G in reality, wireless VR and driverless cars connected through 5G will take time.
As for devices, the Samsung Galaxy M13 5G priced at little more than Rs 11,000 is the cheapest device which provides a gateway to 5G services in India.
