5G network rollout in India will happen in August-September: IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
India Today
"Auction is in time. July was the timeframe for the auction. August-September was the timeframe to begin rollout," Union IT minister Ashwini Vasihnaw said.
5G spectrum auction in India will take place in July. Union Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Wednesday, said that the 5G rollout will happen soon after the spectrum auctions are successfully over. Vaishnaw said that high-speed 5G services will roll out in August or September this year.
The cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the 5G spectrum auction on Wednesday. The spectrum auction is set to take place on July 26. Vaishnaw stated that although the auction is in July, the process for it has already begun. "Telecom companies are already working in parallel to set up the entire infrastructure," Vaishnaw told PTI in an interview. "Auction is in time. July was the timeframe for the auction. August-September was the timeframe to begin rollout," he added.
It was previously reported that 5G network rollout will happen on August 15. While Vaishnaw did not confirm the exact date, the timeline for rollout set by the government is in line with what was previously reported.
5G is expected to be 10 times faster than 4G.“It is expected that the Mid and High band spectrum will be utilised by Telecom Service Providers to roll-out of 5G technology-based services capable of providing speed and capacities which would be about 10 times higher than what is possible through the current 4G services,” the official PIB release stated.
The government announced a total auction of 72097.85 MHz of spectrum with 20 years validity by July-end will be put to auction. These include 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 3300 MHz, and 26 GHz.
As part of the first phase, 5G services will be rolled out in 13 major cities. These include Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurugram, Kolkata, Lucknow, Pune, Chennai, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Ahemdabad and Chandigarh. More cities and rural areas will be added to the list eventually.
