Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are working on rolling out their 5G networks to new parts of India. Jio started with four cities, while Airtel started with eight to stay ahead of Jio. By the end of the year, the telcos will reach more major cities of the nation. It’s been only a few days since 5G was launched in the country. However, Jio and Airtel have aggressive plans to roll out 5G in India. The telcos have built partnerships with Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung to get help with the 5G rollout. But there are a few things that you should know here.
Airtel and Jio 5G Will Reach New Cities Fast But Will Need Time for Blanket Coverage
While the telcos have rolled out 5G in a few of the cities already, it doesn’t mean that those entire cities are covered with their 5G networks. Only a few sites have been activated. For 5G to be rolled out successfully in every part of the nation, multiple things need to go right. Infrastructure is one of the biggest things that the telcos would have to take care of. Without proper infrastructure and fiberisation, 5G won’t be successful. Thus, when the telcos say that they will reach every part of the nation by early 2024 with their 5G networks, they just mean that most of India will have live 5G sites. It doesn’t mean a blanket 5G coverage will be there. But what’s good about this is that consumers in every city would get to experience 5G on their devices. Airtel has said that it would provide PAN-India 5G coverage by March 2024, while Jio plans to do it by December 2023. Both telcos will stay on the edge and try to roll out 5G as fast as possible to capture a larger market share of consumers.
