Bharti Airtel announced that it would start the rollout of 5G services this month. The company has announced officially that it will start providing 5G services in India starting from August 2022.
Airtel has also announced in the press release (opens in new tab) that it has signed agreements with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung for 5G deployment. Airtel already had arrangements with Nokia and Ericsson, while this is the first time it has made agreements with Samsung for 5G.
Airtel MD and CEO Gopal Vittal had this to say about the agreements, “We are delighted to announce that Airtel will commence roll out of 5G services in August. Our network agreements are finalized and Airtel will work with the best technology partners from across the world to deliver the full benefits of 5G connectivity to our consumers. India’s transition into a digital economy will be led by telecom and 5G presents a game-changing opportunity to drive the digital transformation of industries, enterprises and the socio-economic development of India.”
The Sunil Mittal-led telecom firm recently acquired 19,867.8 MHz 5G spectrum in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz bands in the 5G spectrum auction. Airtel 5G will be present all over the country, but it would most probably start the 5G service in key cities first.
Will I get 5G signals this month itself?
Airtel has been testing 5G on various locations. And this announcement from Airtel is the first from a mobile network after the auction about 5G deployment.
But we can expect Airtel to start 5G services in at least some cities initially, in order to compete with Jio which itself has hinted at the 5G roll out on August 15. We will wait and see. It had signed agreements with different partners for the deployment of equipment required for the 5G network. If a nationwide 5G rollout is happening this month itself, the network should have 5G equipment in every existing tower of the company. That might not be the case since the announcement of the agreements with equipment manufacturers has come only now.
Over the past year, Airtel has been testing several use cases with multiple partners at many locations. From demonstrating India’s first 5G experience over a live 4G network in Hyderabad to India’s first rural 5G trial to the first cloud gaming experience on 5G to the successful deployment of India’s first captive private network on the trial spectrum, Airtel has set the pace in the industry.