Bharti Airtel aims to reach all urban regions in India with 5G coverage by the end of 2023
Indian operator Bharti Airtel expects to cover large Indian cities with its 5G network by the end of the year, the telco’s CEO Gopal Vittal said in a letter to customers.
“We expect to launch our 5G services within a month. By December, we should have coverage in the key cities. After that we will expand rapidly to cover the entire country,” the executive said.
Vittal also noted that Bharti Airtel aims to reach all urban regions in India with 5G coverage by the end of 2023.
“Airtel 5G will deliver dramatically higher speeds compared to a 4G network. It could be anywhere between 20 to 30 times the speed you get today (…) Airtel 5G will also enable differential quality for special requirements, something called network slicing,” Vittal added.
Bharti Airtel recently signed 5G network agreements with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to start 5G deployments.
The Indian operator had 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.
Ericsson previously said that that Airtel will deploy 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System and Ericsson microwave mobile transport solutions. Ericsson will provide 5G connectivity in 12 circles, or geographic regions, for Bharti Airtel.
Meanwhile, Nokia’s 5G RAN contract covers an approximately 45% market share, providing equipment from its AirScale portfolio, including modular and scalable baseband, as well as massive MIMO radios.
The 5G spectrum auction in India concluded on August 1 and according to the country’s Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, local carriers purchased a total $19 billion worth of spectrum.
Reliance Jio walked away with the most spectrum, having spent $11 billion. Airtel won spectrum worth $5.4 billion, while Vodafone Idea received spectrum worth $2.4 billion. Finally, Adani purchased spectrum worth approximately $27 million, which it will use to offer private 5G network services.
Rival operator Reliance Jio Infocomm said at its annual shareholders meeting on Monday that it will invest INR 2 trillion ($25 billion) on its 5G rollout, and plans to reach every Indian town with 5G service by the end of 2023.
According to local reports, Reliance Jio will activate 5G service first in the cities of Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai by the festival of Diwali, which happens this year in late October.
Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea said that the launch of 5G services in the country will depend on several factors such as the evolution of use cases, customer demand and competitive dynamics, RavinderTakkar, the company’s non-executive chairman reportedly said.
“We are in discussion with various vendors for 5G procurement. We are also in discussions with the banks for funding arrangements. And once these two things are in place, we will be taking action to deploy 5G,” said Vodafone Idea CEO Akshay Moondra.
