Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of 5G services at the sixth edition of the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC 2022). According to an official release, 5G will be launched by the Prime Minister in select 13 Indian cities which include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and Jamnagar in the first phase, followed by it will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years.
According to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), he is scheduled to launch the 5G services at 10 am on 1 October 2022 at an event organized at Pragati Maidan in the national capital.
According to the Ministry of Communications 5G spectrum auctions were conducted successfully and 51,236 MHz was allocated to Telecom Service Providers with gross revenue of ₹1,50,173 crore. The auction aggregated the need for a robust 5G ecosystem that can cater to its use cases involving IoT, M2M, AI, Edge Computing, Robotics etc.
Apart from the 5G launch, PM Modi will also inaugurate the 6th edition of India Mobile Congress 2022 (IMC-2022), which will be held from 1-4October at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
Who launched 5G first in India?
Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are likely to be the first providers of the 5G service in India.
Airtel’s chairman Sunil Mittal has launched the 5G services in India and announced that the telecom operator will be launching it on 1 October 2022 in select cities. Airtel has plans to provide the 5G services all over India as soon as possible and the latest network will first be available in about 8 cities
Sunil Mittal didn’t reveal all the names of the cities, but he did confirm that Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai, Bangalore and four other cities will get Airtel 5G services starting today. The executive also promised that the telecom company will launch 5G services throughout the country by March 2024.
Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio 5G plans will be available at the lowest rates in the country. Reliance Jio previously announced that it would start 5G service by Diwali in 2022, so one can expect it to arrive in the coming weeks soon.
“5G is much more than the next generation of connectivity technology. To my mind, it is a foundational technology that unlocks the full potential of other 21st Century technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things, robotics, Blockchain and Metaverse,” Mukesh Ambani said. He further added “I think of 5G as an acronym for 5 goals that fundamentally can transform our nation,"
Vodafone Idea has also promised soon to begin the launch of the latest network in India.
