5G services come to 238 cities in India - Mr Devusinh Chauhan

5G services are currently available in 238 Indian cities by the end of January 2023, Devusinh Chauhan, Union Minister of State for Communications, told Parliament on Wednesday. Telecom service providers started providing high-speed 5G services in the country from October 2022.

"The Government has established a road map to make 5G services available in different parts of the country through rollout obligations. As per the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) dated 15-06-2022 for the auction of spectrum and the license conditions, the rollout obligations are required to be met over five years, in a phased manner, from the date of allocation of spectrum," the minister said.

The Indian government issued spectrum allocation letters to telecom service providers in August 2022, asking the telecom operators to prepare for the rollout of 5G services in the country. From the 5G spectrum auction, the Department of Telecommunications received total bids worth Rs. 1.50 lakh crore. Reliance Jio, the Adani group, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea were the top four participants in the spectrum auction.

What is 5G, and how different is it compared to 3G and 4G services?

5G is the fifth-generation mobile network that has the ability to transmit a large set of data at a very fast speed. Compared to 3G and 4G, 5G has very low latency, which will improve user experiences in various sectors. Low latency describes the efficiency of processing a very high volume of data messages with a minimum delay. The launch of 5G is also expected to lead to further development in remote data monitoring in the mining, storage, telemedicine, and manufacturing sectors, among others.