Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel said on Saturday that his company will be rolling out 5G services soon in 8 Indian cities including Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The announcement was made by Sunil Bharti Mittal at Indian Mobile Congress in New Delhi which witnessed prime minister Narendra Modi launching 5G services for first time in the country.
Ministry of telecommunications had earlier auctioned 5G spectrums of various bandwidths to major Indian telecom companies who paid more than 1 lakh crore rupees all together to Indian government.
Bharti Airtel also announced that it will increase the presence of 5G services to several Indian cities by March 2023 and plans to have countrywide rollout of services by March 2024. Chairman of the telecom giant stated that the new Intiative by the Indian government to increase efficiency and reach of internet connectivity will help Indian turn itself into an economic superpower.
According to Sunil Bharti Mittal, 5G services can be utilised by the country to increase awareness about various subjects and open new arenas of opportunities. He also said that by rollout of 5G services in the country, india can expect 1000s of new entrepreneurs, multi-million dollar startups and dozens of new age ventures which have unicorn company status.
The auction of 5G spectrum saw participation of all major telecom players in indian markets such as Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Telecom entity of Adani Group also participated in the auction and purchased low bandwidth frequency spectrums which are planning to be used for internal purposes of the conglomerate.
Bharti Airtel purchased 19.8 giga hertz of 5G spectrum for a price of 43084 crore indian rupees. Out of the 43 thousand crore rupees, Airtel already paid 8300 crore upfront payment in August 2022, for next 4 years.
Few weeks ago in August 15th 2022, during his independence day speech from the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed that 5G services will be rolled out in the country as soon as possible. He had also stated that speed of internet connections will go up by atleast 10 times of the current rate if 5G comes out.
In the Indian Mobile Congress, Reliance Jio of Mukesh Ambani also announced that they’ll roll out 5G services in selected major cities from today onwards and is planning to have all india coverage by March 2023.
