5G services to be launched in 13 Indian cities in early 2022: What's going to change?
In the last week of December, The Department of Telecommunications (DoT)announced that the fifth-generation wireless internet technology, popularly called 5G, will be launched in as many as 13 Indian cities in the first quarter of 2022. This technology is expected to provide faster and more responsive internet services across India soon. The 13 cities where this 5G technology will be rolled out include Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Jamnagar and Lucknow. However, the union ministry is yet to confirm which telecom operator will be the first to commercially operate 5G connections. According to latest reports, all the three leading contenders, namely Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vi (Vodafone India) have set up trial sites all across these 13 cities and are now under severe competition. Here’s everything today’s internet savvy youngsters need to know about the launch of 5G technology in India.
What is 5G technology?
Mobile broadband networks (LTE) have been evolving since many years now, and 5G is the latest upgrade in the sector. Unlike many countries, India has tasted the flavours of all of 5G’s predecessors, namely 2G, 3G and the current 4G which was a great leap forward in the domain of internet. While 4G supported efficient music and video streaming and long conference calls, 5G is expected to improve all these services and offer better speed and quality of the internet.
5G primarily operates in 3 bands, low, medium and high frequency spectrum. While the speed of the low frequency spectrum is 100 Mbps, the high frequency spectrum offers a speed as high as 20 Gbps, which is almost 20 times faster than the 4G’s maximum speed of 1Gbps. Moreover, the coverage area and penetration of signals are also far better in case of 5G.
As some of us already know, 4G is more suited for smartphones, but with 5G, the usage will be far more flexible and the need for special-purpose networks will go away. 5G is also expected to work as multiple distinct networks, simultaneously.
Why are these 13 cities chosen for the maiden 5G launch in India?
All the 13 cities that have been chose are either metro cities or big cities with maximum urban population with better penetration and access to telecom services. This is going to make the shift from 4G to 5G easier. Moreover, since the prices of the 5G packs will initially be higher, only the urban population will be able to afford it. Lastly, these cities have tall and walled buildings and vast open spaces. This will make the long-term experiment more effective.
How are things going to change for the 5G users?
One of the major changes that 5G users will experience is greater speed. The second advantage will be enhanced clarity on smartphones or other connected devices. For example, streaming videos with multiple camera angles, especially during sporting events, or while playing video games using gaming accessories will be near flawless. Moreover, people who are planning to buy high end smartphones in 2022 will profit immensely from 5G networks on their newly bought devices that are customised to support 5G.