At the onset of India gearing up for the rollout of 5G services by October, the government targets to cover the entire country within 2 years, said Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at an event on Sunday.
The government in mid-August issued spectrum allocation letters to telecom service providers while asking them to prepare for the rollout of 5G services. With this spectrum allotment, India is in the final stage of rolling out high-speed 5G telecom services.
Reliance Jio has already announced it will launch high-speed 5G telecom services by Diwali this year in multiple key cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai.
Subsequently, it intends to expand its 5G network to each and every town, tehsil, and talukas across the country by December of 2023, which is nearly 18 months from now.
5G services are expected to be about 10 times faster than 4G. High-speed 5G telecom services are expected to be offered in several cities in the country by the end of this year.
What is 5G, and how is it different from the current 3G and 4G services?
5G is the fifth-generation mobile network capable of transmitting a large set of data at a very high speed. When compared to 3G and 4G, 5G has very low latency, which will enhance user experiences in various sectors. Low latency will increase the efficiency of processing a very high volume of data messages with a minimal delay.
The 5G rollout is also expected to bring more development in remote data monitoring in sectors such as mining, warehousing, telemedicine, and manufacturing, among others.
Who were the participants in the auction?
Reliance Jio, Adani Group, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea(Vi) are the four major participants in the spectrum auction.
This is the first time that the Gautam Adani-led Adani group, which recently forayed into the telecom sector, has participated in the bidding process of the 5G telecom spectrum auction.
How much revenue did the government make from the auction?
The Department of Telecom received total bids worth Rs 1.50 lakh crore from the recently concluded auction. Revenue from the auctions was initially estimated to be Rs 80,000-90,000 crores.
