Reliance Jio has announced plans to reach nationwide coverage with 5G by December of next year, while Bharti Airtel aims to offer full 5G coverage across India by March 2024
Indian telecom operators Bharti Aitel and Reliance Jio are adding around 3,500 mobile sites per week as they accelerate 5G deployments, local newspaper The Economic Times reported.
According to the report, both carriers are set to further scale up site additions to 9,000-10,000 per week combined in the coming months as equipment becomes easily available with more domestic production of radios, the newspaper said citing executives of the two companies.
“Reliance Jio Infocomm is preparing to add 5,000 to 6,000 sites per week in 3-4 months as the company aims to cover the entire country by the end of next year,” an official with knowledge of the matter told the newspaper.
While Reliance Jio has announced plans to reach nationwide coverage with 5G by December next year, Bharti Airtel aims to offer full 5G coverage across India by March 2024.
Jio is currently adding around 2,500 sites per week. Currently, Reliance Jio is rolling out 5G on 700 MHz and 3.3GHz bands while Bharti Airtel is deploying 5G technology via the 3.3GHz spectrum band.
“5G rollout is going on schedule. In phase one, we aim to cover 200 cities by March 2023. By the end of 2023, almost every district in the country would have 5G coverage,” communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said.
Vaishnaw also said that local carriers will soon accelerate network coverage by putting up around 10,000 5G base stations every week.
Last month, Airtel announced the launch of 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi.
Bharti Airtel is chiefly using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 5G services. The Indian operator secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a recent auction carried out by the Indian government.
Last week, Bharti Airtel announced that it has already reached 1 million unique 5G subscribers in less than 30 days since it had commercially launched this technology in certain areas of the country.
Rival telco Reliance Jio Infocomm had also recently launched the beta trial of its 5G services in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Varanasi. The carrier confirmed that its 5G service will be offered through 5G Standalone architecture and through a mix of wireless spectrum across the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands.
Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea is currently in talks with several venders for the supply of 5G gear. The telco is also seeking to obtain financial resoirces for the launch of its 5G network.
Indian state-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) could launch 5G services by August of next year, according to recent press reports.
