New Delhi, Nov 18 (UiTV/IANS) – Varanasi has become the first airport in Uttar Pradesh to enjoy ultrafast 5G service.
Airtel on Friday announced the deployment of its 5G Plus service at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi.
Passengers can enjoy blazing speeds on their mobile phones while they are at the arrival and departure terminals, lounges, boarding gates, migration and immigration counters, security areas, baggage claim belts, parking areas etc. All customers with 5G smartphones will enjoy the high speed Airtel 5G Plus on their existing data plans. There is no need to change the SIM as the existing Airtel 4G SIM is 5G enabled, an official said.
The new terminal in Bengaluru and Pune are the other two airports that have Airtel 5G Plus.
As per the telecommunications service provider, Varanasi was one amongst the first eight cities in the country to get the Airtel 5G Plus service. The services are currently available at Benaras Hindu University (BHU), Ghatt Road, Adampur, Beniya Bagh Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Rajghat, Sarnath, Sigra, Thateri Bazaar and few other locations. Airtel is augmenting its network further to make its services available across the city in due course of time.
Commenting on the launch, Sovan Mukerjee, CEO, Bharti Airtel, Uttar Pradesh said, Airtel customers can now enjoy blazing fast speeds on their mobile phones allowing them to access superfast High-Definition video streaming, gaming, multiple chatting, instant uploading of photos and more while at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport. We are in the process of augmenting the network further to make our services available across Varanasi.”
Airtel 5G Plus service is now live in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, Varanasi, Panipat and Gurugram.
Jio True 5G becomes first to cover Delhi-NCR
Jio is now the only operator to provide True-5G services across the entire Delhi-NCR region, including Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and other major locations.
Jio is rolling out the most-advanced True-5G network at a rapid pace, now covers major parts of this geography. This transformational network will be present across all important localities and areas including, but not limited to most residential areas, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, government buildings, high streets, malls and markets, high footfall areas such as tourist spots and hotels, tech-parks, roads, highways and metros.
Commenting on this occasion, a Jio spokesperson commented: “Covering majority of the National Capital and NCR region is a matter of pride for us. Jio is expanding its True 5G reach at a rapid pace and has already rolled out a large portion of the planned True-5G network in this area.
“It is the only operator to be present across the entire Delhi-NCR region with True-5G services. The reason Jio engineers are working round the clock to deliver True-5G to every Indian is because of the transformational power of this technology and the exponential benefit it can bring to every citizen.”
Lakhs of Jio users in Delhi-NCR are already enjoying the Jio Welcome Offer, in which they experience Unlimited Data at up to 1 Gbps+ speeds, at no additional cost, that is possible because of stand-alone 5G architecture with Zero dependency on 4G network, the largest and best mix of 5G spectrum across 700 MHz, 3500 MHz, and 26 GHz bands and carrier Aggregation that seamlessly combines these 5G frequencies into a single robust “data highway” using an advanced technology called Carrier Aggregation.
Qualcomm doubles down on 5G with Jio
With the initial roll-out of 5G in India, global chip-maker Qualcomm has bolstered its efforts with Reliance Jio to help it fast connect 100 million homes through its 5G fixed wireless access including the millimetre wave (mmWave), a top company executive has said.
Qualcomm is working very closely with Reliance Jio to provide its chipset platforms for the 5G fixed wireless access and the Open RAN 5G network.
“Reliance Jio is taking the benefits of 5G at scale to the people in India that will help rural population get faster access to health and education in a seamless way. Qualcomm is currently working with Jio on various components of 5G innovation as its roll-out takes concrete shape,” Ignacio Contreras, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Qualcomm, told IANS.
He said that India has impressed the world on 5G roll-out and will become a case study for several countries to follow on how to roll out a new technology in a faster, seamless way.
“India has a significant advantage in terms of engineering and software skills. The country has a highly-educated technical population and our research and development teams there are also very strong for emerging technologies like 5G,” said Contreras who leads a product marketing team responsible for 5G modem-RF and infrastructure, AI, gaming, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other technologies.
The country has its own sets of challenges and with 5G, people in the remote parts of the country can connect with health-care providers in Metro cities, without any lag for quicker online diagnosis and treatment.
“Reliance Jio, with its vast network and a strong user base, can help such people when it reaches almost every part of the country. This is just the beginning and Qualcomm is there to push the boundaries with Jio,” said Contreras.
Reliance Jio is building the 5G network indigenously, including the core and the 5G radios.
Both the companies recently achieved over a 1 Gbps milestone on the Jio 5GNR solution using Qualcomm’s 5G RAN platforms.
In August, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani announced the collaboration between Jio Platforms and Qualcomm for local manufacturing of critical equipment to boost the 5G ecosystem in the country.
Qualcomm CEO Cristian Amon had said that with Reliance Jio, “we’re committed to developing the digital infrastructure that enables the success of citizens and businesses, and achieves the New India”.
At the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022 last month, Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio will bring 5G services to all parts of the country by December 2023.
To build a pan-India true 5G network, Jio has committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore.
After the successful beta launch of Jio True 5G services in six cities, Jio last week extended 5G to Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
According to the company, Jio users are currently experiencing speeds anywhere between 500 Mbps to 1 Gbps on smartphones, using very high quantities of data seamlessly.
Neil Shah, Vice President of Research, Counterpoint Research, told IANS that India’s current household broadband penetration is close to 13 per cent with majority of them not even getting 100Mbps speeds.
“5G fixed wireless access (FWA) will become one of the key technologies to close this digital divide. The 5G rural coverage will be key to driving this adoption and connecting the unconnected households to internet,” Shah explained.
Players such as Qualcomm and Jio will be key to drive 5G as the key technology for ubiquitous wireless broadband in India, he added.
Reliance Jio offers stand-alone 5G architecture with advanced 5G network and has the largest and best mix of 5G spectrum across 700 MHz, 3500 MHz, and 26 GHz bands.
By utilising the untapped frequency bands above 24 GHz, the abundant spectrum available at mmWave can deliver the fastest available 5G speeds and premium mobile experiences.
According to Qualcomm, 5G mmWave devices powered by Snapdragon can deliver speeds 16x faster than regular 5G (sub-6).
With blazing fast data transfers of up to 10 Gigabits per second, one can stream, share, backup and enjoy mobile content with super speed and quality.
“A few years from now, we will see India as a key example on how 5G could be transformational for billions of people. It is going to an an impressive journey as we are glad to be part of this,” said Francesco Grilli, VP, product management, Qualcomm.