Telecom space set for faster 5G rollout in New Year

Vijay C Roy

Chandigarh, December 30

Telecom players are gearing up to roll out 5G services next year. Jio plans to cover whole of Punjab in the next few months. Besides metros, it has so far launched 5G services in 66 cities.

Speaking at Reliance Industries’ 45th AGM, Chairman Mukesh Ambani had announced that Jio has prepared the fastest-ever and most ambitious plan to roll out its 5G services across whole of India by December 2023 at an investment of Rs 2 lakh crore.

Similarly, Airtel has launched 5G services in 20 cities and fibre airports such as Pune, Nagpur, Patna, Varanasi and Lucknow.

The service provider claimed it will deliver the best experience — 20 to 30 times higher speed than today coupled with brilliant voice experience and super-fast call connect. Airtel said whole of urban India would be covered in 2023, making it one of the fastest rollouts.

Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea has still not launched 5G services but is expected to roll out in the coming years. “To drive 5G ecosystem development in the country for faster adoption of services, Vi is partnering with leading device OEMs to have Vi 5G provisioned for its users in time for market rollout,” it said a statement.