5G already in 50 towns across 14 states/ UT of India, says Minister

5G is rolling out in full swing across the country, and it has already reached lots of cities. In a recent report, the Minister of State for Communications, Devusinh Chauhan, has said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha that telecom operators are now providing 5G services in the country for October 1, 2022 across 50 towns in 14 states and union territories. 5G is currently being released by Airtel and Jio in the country.

“Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have started providing 5G services in the country from 01.10.2022 onwards and as of 26.11.2022, 5G services have started in 50 towns distributed over 14 States/ Union Territories," Chauhan said in the report.

5G in 50 towns of India

Additionally, the Minister also spoke about the status of BSNL’s recent 4G upgrade and planned 5G upgrade. "BSNL floated the Expression of Interest (EOI) on January 1, 2021 for the Proof of Concept (PoC). The PoC has been completed with few pending points. 5G Non Standalone Access (NSA) upgrade has also been kept as a deferred feature in BSNL's EOI," Chauhan said.

Additionally, the government has also reserved spectrum for BSNL’s 5G services that are expected to go live sometime in mid-2023.

At the moment, it is Airtel and Reliance Jio that are offering 5G services in India. Airtel is relying on the Non Standalone flavour of 5G, which means it is relying on its 4G LTE infrastructure to provide more robust 5G data services. Jio’s 5G service relies on a Stanndalone flavour of 5G, which means it relies solely on 5G infrastructure. Initial tests have shown substantially higher speeds on Jio’s 5G network, with most users getting speeds in Gbps.