A ceremony to mark the commercial launch of India’s 5G network is scheduled to take place today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce the launch of the 5G signaling network at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. 5G will revolutionize India’s digital journey. It is not just a consumer-oriented mobile network but also enables use cases that were not possible before with wireless networks. Even in the consumer space, 5G will make a huge difference by enabling use cases such as cloud gaming that telcos are desperately seeking to monetize.
The nature of 5G dictates that it will slowly penetrate all users in the country. Operator Jio will start in four locations: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, with users in parts of Delhi being able to access 5G first, and it will take some time before every user in Delhi and the aforementioned cities can get 5G speeds on a consistent basis. Jio 5G promises to offer 5G at some of the lowest rates in the world, and Reliance Jio previously announced that it will start before Diwali rolling out 5G, so one can expect it to arrive in the next few weeks.
Airtel has plans to roll out 5G services across India as soon as possible, with the latest network being offered in around eight cities to begin with. While he did not reveal the names of all eight cities, Mittal did confirm that Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai, Bangalore and four other cities will get Airtel 5G services from today.
Vodafone Idea has also promised to start rolling out its latest network in India soon.
That’s why even if telcos launch 5G tariffs, they won’t be much different from 4G tariffs. Or it is possible that 5G will be offered alongside the 4G plans themselves. This involves the question: where is the consumer and what kind of network coverage does he/she get?
India’s telcos will continue to demonstrate what kind of use cases and possibilities 5G brings to consumers and businesses. At the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022, telcos will also have their own booth where they will showcase what they intend to do with 5G in the future. Visitors can get a communication pass for the show from the official IMC website.
In terms of speed and latency, 5G is definitely a boost to the 4G network that Indians are already used to. Now, there is a lot to look forward to with 5G, but it goes without saying that there is an immediate and unnecessary excitement about what 5G can do and the tech ecosystem will have to adapt and evolve over the next few years to truly adapt to 5G in a meaningful way to really bring some change to the lives of consumers and businesses.
