Airtel became the first network to show-off live 5G in India. The company, in a press conference held in Hyderabad, showcased the first ever live demo of Airtel 5G.
The company’s CEO, Gopal Vittal, said that “Airtel can immediately roll out 5G services with adequate availability of spectrum.” The company ran its 5G test over a commercial network in Hyderabad city and said that its network across the city is 5G ready.
Airtel 5G is based on the company’s current 4G hardware. The test ran over the 1800MHz band, the band which company owns. it was done using NSA (Non Stand Alone) network technology. The company said that it’s using next-generation dynamic spectrum sharing, with which the company seamlessly operated 5G and 4G concurrently within the same spectrum block.
Airtel says that its 5G technology will offer users 10 times the speeds, 10 times ‘lower’ latency, and 100 times concurrency over the existing 4G network. Demonstrators were able to download a 4K movie ‘in a matter of seconds’ using Airtel 5G in Hyderabad.
Indian government is yet to hold its 5G spectrum.
Our Take
5G is soon going to be a reality in India, with the trials starting this year. Jio has already rolled out its plan of rolling out 5G in India in the second half of this year, and with Airtel now joining the race, 5G might soon be a reality. We don’t really expect mmWave 5G to come to India, due to its low range and high infrastructure cost, but sub-6GHz 5G might soon be reality. Those 5G smartphones are soon going to be useful, it seems.
We Want to Hear From You
What’s your take on Airtel 5G? Are you looking forward to use 5G on your device? Which 5G network will you prefer? Jio 5G or Airtel 5G? Do let us know in the comment section below!
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