5G services to be rolled out in 12 cities & 1 UT in 2022: Department of Telecom

India is preparing to launch the Fifth Generation or 5G telecommunication services in 2022 in several cities including Gurugram, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, and Gandhinagar. In these 12 cities & 1 union territory, leading telecom service providers Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone- Idea have set up 5G trial sites and will be delivering the 5G network. 

 "These Metros and big cities would be the first places for the launch of 5G services in the country, next year," the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said on Monday. 

12 cities & 1 UT to launch 5G telecom services by 2022

The fifth generation of long-term evolution (LTE) or 5G mobile broadband networks is the most recent upgrade. While 4G was a significant step forward in terms of allowing users to stream music and video on the move, 5G is designed to link a much wider range of devices than smartphones and to provide significantly faster speeds and capacity.

Apart from the major telecom carriers and smartphone manufacturers, the government is actively assisting in the deployment of 5G services. For the development and testing of 5G technology, the Department of Telecom has enlisted the help of major research institutions.

The 'Indigenous 5G Testbed project' involved eight government agencies: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER), and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).

The initiative to build an indigenous 5G testbed began in 2018 and is expected to be finished by December 31, 2021. The Department of Telecom provided funding for the research. This project cost the department Rs 224 crore.

"Costing Rs 224 crore, the project is likely to be completed by December 31, 2021, paving the way for end-to-end testing of 5G User Equipment (UEs) and network equipment by 5G stakeholders developing 5G products/services/use cases, including indigenous start-ups, SMEs, Academia and Industry in the country," the Department of Telecom said.

Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman expressed optimism earlier this month and announced that a 5G testbed would be launched in early January.

 "We hope to roll out this 5G testbed in early January which will enable SMEs and other parts of industries to come and test their solution on a working platform," Rajaraman said at India Mobile Congress on December 9.

(With ANI Inputs)