According to sources, Bharti Airtel’s 5G trial network has gone live in Mumbai’s Phoenix Mall in Lower Parel. Airtel is conducting the trial in the 3500 MHz band using 5G gear from Nokia as per DoT guidelines. The trials have delivered speeds of over 1 Gbps with ultra-low latency. This is the first time that Bharti Airtel is claiming gigabit speeds on a mobile network. This event happens to be a landmark event, as for the first time Bharti Airtel is immensely close to offering a true 5G experience.
Airtel 5G Network Test Under
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had recently allotted 5G trial spectrum to Airtel in 3500 MHz, 28 GHz, and 700 MHz in Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru to develop India-relevant use cases on the next-gen fast wireless broadband technology.
Earlier this year, Airtel became the first telco in India to test 5G over a live network in Hyderabad using liberalized spectrum in an 1800 MHz band through Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology. Airtel’s network is adequately ready to launch commercial 5G services in the country shortly after the availability of adequate spectrum. It is worth noting that the telcos continue to use the presently available 4G spectrum for the relaying of the nascent stages of the 5G network.
As per sources, Airtel and Nokia plan to soon begin 5G trials in Kolkata. Previously, we have highlighted the Airtel 5G trials in Hyderabad. However, things have surely changed a lot in the last six months. The previous trials in Hyderabad could only achieve the speed of 310 Mbps, which although was a feat achieved for the first time over a mobile network in India, but still was nowhere near the true potential of 5G. But, now Airtel has filled the vacuum and with the newly allocated spectrum, Airtel has demonstrated the promised speed of 1 Gbps which happens to be the highlight of the fifth-generation technology network.
