Bharti Airtel is the first to launch the 5G Plus services in India on October 01, 2022, at the IMC. It is the only telco offering customers open and full-scale commercial 5G services. The telco also takes the lead this New Year 2023 with its 5G Rollout bash by announcing 5G Plus services in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on January 03, 2023. So far, Bharti Airtel has officially announced 5G Plus services across 23 cities.
Ultrafast connectivity Experience On-the-Go in Hyderabad
Hyderabad is in the first cluster of eight 5G Plus cities announced by the telco in India. Interestingly, it is also the city where Airtel announced ultra-fast connectivity On-the-Go. Hence, TelecomTalk decided to perform an On the Go 5G Experience test in Hyderabad that was successfully conducted on December 27, 2022. Earlier, as a first-of-its-kind, Airtel conducted a Reality Check of its 5G Plus Services in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. So, here's our first Hands-on 5G Experience of Airtel 5G Plus in detail.
Also Read: Airtel 5G Plus Reality Check in Chennai
Airtel 5G Plus in Hyderabad
Airtel announced the launch of 5G services in the city, connecting key locations and transport hubs, including the Metro Rail, Railway stations and the Bus terminal, on December 15, 2022.
Metro
Hyderabadi's can enjoy ultra-fast 5G connectivity while travelling on the Hyderabad Metro Rail. Airtel 5G Plus services connect the entire corridor of the Hyderabad Metro Rail.
Visually Slide: Airtel 5G Plus On-the-Go in Hyderabad
Railway Station and Bus Terminal
In addition, commuters can also enjoy Airtel's 5G services at the Secunderabad & Kacheguda railway stations along with the Imlibun bus depot, Telangana's biggest inter-state bus terminal (ISBT).
Key Locations
In addition, customers can enjoy Airtel 5G Plus in multiple locations, including Begumpet, Banjara Hills, Jubilee hills, Hi-tech City, Gachibowli, Bowenplly, Kompally, RTC Cross Roads, Koti, Malakpet, Charminar, Habsiguda, Uppal, Nagole, Kupatpally, Miyapur etc.
Also Read: Advantage of Airtel 5G With Respect to Coverage and Experience Explained
Airtel 5G Supporting Handsets and Data Plan
Airtel 5G Plus now works across all 5G smartphones and promises to deliver customers massive speeds and the best voice experience. Customers can enjoy Airtel 5G Plus services on their existing data plans until the rollout is more widespread. No SIM change is needed as the existing Airtel 4G SIM is 5G enabled.
Airtel 5G Plus locations we covered
We at TelecomTalk, have covered the entire stretch of the most data-demanding locations of the city, such as BHEL, Gachibowli, HITEC City, Jubilee Hills, and Banjara Hills, to name a few, including an extent of the metro corridor. These zones house many IT parks, professionals and the most happening parts of the city. A map of the places we have travelled to is also added above.
Initial Impressions
Airtel 5G Plus is available almost everywhere we have travelled in Hyderabad. One just needs to enable 5G Mode in the phone settings, have a data plan, and you are all set to experience 5G Plus on Airtel. No latching issues, manual network search, Restart, or anything required to connect to Airtel 5G Plus Network. As soon as we have landed in the 5G Plus Network Availability Zone, the device (smartphone) is automatically connected to the 5G Network. We have used OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G and an Apple iPhone to Experience Airtel 5G Plus.
Also Read: Explained: Differences Between 5G NSA and SA
Airtel 5G Plus Speeds in Hyderabad
We have extensively used Airtel 5G Plus for HD Video, audio streaming, speedtests (just for this write-up), Downloads etc. In our real case testing on a live commercial Network, we have experienced Download speeds touching a peak of approximately 700 Mbps - 1023 Mbps and Upload speeds touching a peak of 124 Mbps - 170 Mbps, approximately.
Airtel 5G Plus Speeds on the Go
Battery Experience
Battery performance is dependent on both device and Network. Although we noticed a few incidents where the OnePlus battery drained away faster than iPhone while performing extensive speed tests, the condition didn't last long. However, you can experience a slightly reduced battery life on devices connected to 5G than with 4G if you use 5G on the handsets excitedly for speed tests, which is normal.
Voice on 5G and Call Connect times
We know this is the aspect you have all been waiting for. The handset doesn't fall back to 4G for Voice, and the Voice call is carried on the 5G Network itself. So you can simultaneously make voice calls and enjoy high-speed data on Airtel 5G Plus, just like on Airtel 4G VoLTE. The call connects instantly, and we didn't even notice a single issue with our voice calls (both outgoing and incoming) on 5G Network.
Conclusion
Considering the on-the-go experience on Airtel 5G Plus Network in a live commercial and open to all usage scenario, these 5G speeds and experience will stand apart and blow you away. Although Airtel cited and highlighted the On-the-Go 5G Experience in Hyderabad, we have also experienced complete coverage indoors, with no issues over Voice. We switched to the device Hotspot connected to the 5G Network from wired broadband to experience the internet stability and were impressed. Airtel 5G Plus network is available in most places in Hyderabad in our experience in real. This is it for now; we shall share more such experiences in the coming days on our platforms.
