Bharti Airtel has kicked off its 5G trial network in Gurugram just a little over a month after the government gave its go-ahead to telecom operators in India to carry out trials on the next-generation cellular network technology. The telco is giving its 5G network at a maximum speed of over 1Gbps. The site where the trial is currently running is operating in the 3500MHz band. Earlier this year, Airtel demonstrated its 5G network using liberalised spectrum in the 1800MHz band.
The 5G trial network is now live in Gurugram’s Cyber Hub, according to the sources. Airtel is running the test in partnership with Swedish equipment maker Ericsson.
Following the initial trial, Airtel is in plans to conduct a similar test run in Mumbai in the coming days.
Airtel is delivering its 5G network during the trial at a speed of over 1Gbps. This is significantly faster over what consumers normally get on a 4G network in the country.
For now, Airtel customers will not be able to experience the 5G network during the trial even if they have a compatible smartphone, as the government’s rules do not allow testing with end users. The devices that operators use for such trials also require special software updates from their manufacturer side to test the network before its public rollout.
Discussion about this post