Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday (7 December) announced that the 5G services have been rolled out in 50 cities and towns across the country.
Reliance Jio and Airtel are two of India’s major telecom service providers that began rolling out 5G services in the country in October this year.
Jio’s 5G service is available in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Varanasi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Nathdwara. The company recently launched 5G services in all 33 district headquarters of Gujarat.
Airtel also have started 5G rollout in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, Varanasi, Panipat, Gurugram, Guwahati and Patna.
“Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have started providing 5G services in the country from 1 October onwards and as of 26 November, 5G services have started in 50 towns,” Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written reply to a query in the Lok Sabha.
The minister added that the Department of Telecom (DoT) has specified rollout obligations in the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) for the auction of access spectrum.
Ashwini Vaishnaw said the service providers provide 5G services to their subscribers with 5G-enabled devices at no extra cost.
The government had put 72,098 MHz of spectrum (technology-neutral) to auction, of which 51,236.2 MHz ( around 71 percent of the total) was allocated to the TSPs with a bid amounting to Rs 1,50,173.29 crore, the minister said.
As per the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) for the auction of access spectrum and license conditions, the minimum rollout obligations are required to be met over a period of five years in a phased manner from the date of allocation of spectrum, he said.
Further expansion of mobile networks beyond the mandatory rollout obligations depends upon the techno-commercial considerations of the TSPs.
