5G Services Deployed In 50 Towns So Far: Ashwini Vaishnaw

In nearly two months since the launch of 5G services in the country, telecom operators have expanded the service to 50 towns across India. 

“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,” said Union Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in Parliament while replying to a question about 5G rollout.

On a question about the tariffs charged for 5G services, Vaishnaw said that the operators were currently providing the service for 5G enabled devices at no extra cost. 

Speaking about the planned deployment of 5G networks in the country, Vaishnaw said that minimum rollout obligations mentioned in the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) for auction of access spectrum could be met over five years in a phased manner. 

Besides the mandatory rollout obligations, Vaishnaw said that further expansion of the 5G network would be contingent on the techno-commercial considerations of telecom operators.

NIA for auction of access spectrum mandates that telecom operators have to kick off the commercial launch of 5G services in one metro and one non-metro city in each of the three licensed service areas (LSAs) by the end of first year.

While Phase 2 stipulates 5G launch requirements in certain minimum cities within 3 years, the third phase also specifies requirements that have to be completed at the end of five years from the date of acquisition of the licences.

The Minister was also quoted as saying that the government has taken a plethora of policy initiatives to facilitate the rollout of 5G services and expansion of telecommunication infrastructure.

Touting the policies, Vaishnaw said that the government has made sufficient spectrum available to bidders for mobile services through auction, allowed spectrum sharing and trading, removed additional spectrum usage charge (SUC) of 0.5% for spectrum sharing and allowed sharing of infrastructure by telecom companies. 

The Phased 5G Rollout

This comes at a time when telcos have spared no expense to shore up the deployment of 5G services in the country. 

Last month, Jio said that it completed deployment of 5G services at all 33 district headquarters in Gujarat, becoming the first state in the country to have all its districts covered by 5G.

Besides, the Mukesh Amabani-backled telco is also available in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Nathdwara, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad among others. 

On the other hand, India’s second largest telecom operator Airtel has also unveiled 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, among others. The company plans to launch the high-speed network in all metro cities by the end of 2022 and across all ‘major cities’ by the end of 2023.

While Airtel’s 5G is based on a non-standalone service (NSA) that works on the existing 4G network’s infrastructure, competitor Jio’s 5G network is a standalone (SA) network.

As per a report, India will be home to around 31 Mn 5G users by the end of 2022, with the numbers projected to reach 690 Mn by 2028.