Airtel is one of the biggest telecom operators in the country and along with Reliance Jio, Airtel is also set to roll out 5G connectivity in India. The GOI has already conducted the spectrum auctions for 5G and now the wait remains to see how Airtel will roll out 5G in India.
Airtel 5G Launch in India
Airtel has confirmed that it will launch 5G in the month of August itself. It is all set to partner with Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung to deploy its 5G networks across India. The company recently bid and acquired a 19867.8MHz spectrum in 900MHz, 1800Mhz, 2100MHz, 3300MHz, and 26GHz frequencies for the 5G network in India.
Airtel 5G Internet Speeds
Airtel claims that it will provide the fastest 5G speeds in the Indian market. In the trials conducted last year, the 700MHz band was tested in collaboration with Nokia which gave 1Gbps internet speeds and a latency of 10 milliseconds.
Airtel also tested the 5G speed in Hyderabad that gave 3Gbps of peak speed in the 3500MHz spectrum. This is 3x faster than the trials conducted by Jio. So, we can be expected Airtel to come up with very fast speeds for the 5G network.
Airtel 5G Spectrum
The company recently bid and acquired a 19867.8MHz spectrum in 900MHz, 1800Mhz, 2100MHz, 3300MHz, and 26GHz frequencies for the 5G network in India. The company will be deploying its 5G network using this spectrum. The operator has also conducted a trial using the 1800MHz band in Hyderabad. The equipment is said to be compatible with 2100/2300MHz and sub-GHz bands. Airtel has confirmed that it can upgrade its 4G networks to 5G to give a faster rollout of the network across the country.
Airtel 5G Trials Across India
Airtel was the first telecom operator that successfully conducted a 5G trial in India and it was held in Kolkata. The 5G trial network is already live in Cyber Hub in Gurugram, Phoenix Mall, Lower Parel in Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Collaborating with Ericsson, Airtel conducted a trial in Bhaipur Bramanan village on the outskirts of Delhi/NCR. In this rural trial, airtel got 200Mbps of speed on a 3GPP compliant 5G FWA device at a distance of over 10km from the site.
Airtel has also conducted a trial for gaming to show its cloud gaming abilities. It was done in Manesar using the 3500MHz spectrum that has been allotted by DoT. Airtel showed above 1Gbps speed and latency of 10 milliseconds.
