New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in a statement has announced that 5G services will be launched in 2022 in 13 cities, including the metropolises.
According to the press statement, the 13 Indian cities that will get 5G services are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune.
The DoT said, “These metros and big cities would be the first places for the launch of 5G services in the country next year.”
Work on 5G spectrum auction next year has also gathered pace. Telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea have established their 5G trial sites. According to news reports, the 5Gi standard will be incorporated with the global standard as a part of the compromise formula.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also released a consultation paper to seek industry feedback on various issues related to spectrum auction, such as pricing, valuation, and rollout obligation. Ashwini Vaishnav, minister for communications, had last month said that the 5G spectrum auction would be held in April-May of 2022. However, the auction is likely to be delayed until July as Trai is expected to submit its recommendations only in March.
Meanwhile, the DoT tied up with eight agencies for the Indigenous 5G (/topic/5g) Test bed project started in 2018 and is set to be completed by December 31, 2021. These agencies are Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER), and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).
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