5G services to be launched soon in India: Date, cities and others details

After much-delay, India is ready to witness the advent of 5G services, which could pave the path for various possibilities and further bolstered the country's position in the field of information technology.
Telecom operators have been busy with installations to ensure a seamless rollout of these services across states. Things are moving at a fast pace. India is expected to roll out 5G services by October 12, Union Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday. The minister further asserted that the government will make sure that the prices of 5G are affordable for the users.

During his media interaction, Vaishnaw said 5G services will be scaled up after launch and should reach every part of the country in the next two to three years.

"We are planning to roll out 5G services rapidly. The telecom operators are working in that regard and installations are being done. Hopefully, we should be launching 5G services by October and then would further scale up in cities. Our expectations are that 5G should reach every part of the country in the next two to three years. We will ensure that it remains affordable. The industry is focusing on both urban as well as rural areas," he said.

The Centre on Thursday launched the 5G RoW (Right of Way) application form on the Gati Shakti sanchar portal.

The Minister said a common portal for all states has been made to have a central stop-shop for entry of infrastructure applications and approvals.

Last week, the government issued spectrum allocation letters to telecom service providers while asking them to prepare for the rollout of 5G services in the country.

With this spectrum allotment, India entered the final stage of rolling out high-speed 5G telecom services.

These cities could get the services first:
In the first phase of rollout, 13 cities would get the 5G Internet services. The cities are: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune.

During his independence day speech, PM Modi hailed digital India's progress. “India’s ‘techade’ is here, with 5G, chip manufacturing, we are bringing revolution through Digital India to the grassroots,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said. He had added a new term ‘techade’ highlighting the value of technology in today’s world and also said that 5G services would be rolled out soon in India.