While the US, South Korea, China, Japan, and many European countries have already launched commercial 5G services, in India, the reality looks bleak. India is one of the largest smartphone markets in the world and still, spectrum bidding for 5G has not yet begun. That said, after the peak of the pandemic, the government is looking to allocate new 5G spectrums to India’s major telecom operators — Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea — in March 2021. So if you want to learn about the present status of 5G in India and what telecom operators are doing to bring 5G to the masses then go through our extensive explainer below.
Here, we are going to discuss all three major telecom operators in India — Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea — and what their 5G gameplan is. But before that, I would strongly recommend you to go through our article on 5G bands: sub-6GHz and mmWave to fully understand what kind of 5G services are coming to India.
Jio
Airtel
Vodafone Idea
Jio
I am going to start with Jio as it’s currently the largest telecom operator in India and it’s being touted to bring the “true” 5G to the masses. First, let’s talk about what information is already available in the public domain. So far, Reliance has shown interest in offering 5G services in both mid-band and high-frequency mmWave bands. Reliance is looking to buy the 3.5GHz frequency band for mid-band 5G services and 24GHz and 26GHz for premium, gigabit 5G services. Source: Qualcomm
Jio
On top of that, Jio is claiming that it has built “indigenous 5G tech” which is hard to believe on the face. So let’s start with each claim and dissect what approach Reliance is taking to bring SA 5G in India. There are several ways to deploy 5G within SA and NSA modes, starting with Option 1 to Option 7. Jio is said to be using “Option 6” where the radio network and antennas are on 5G architecture, but still uses the 4G core, also called the EPC (Evolved Packet Core). A Snapshot from Satish Jamadagni’s Presentation at TSDSI
The Indigenous 5G Solution of Jio
Now coming to the “made in India 5G solution” claim, there is no clear picture as to how Jio is pulling this. In terms of 5G patents, Jio only has a total of 29 patents (not just 5G) whereas Huawei has over 3000 5G patents, followed by Samsung and ZTE standing around the 2800 mark. So it begs the question, how is Reliance asserting that it has built a 5G solution from scratch as it requires years of research and development? Source: Statista
- Airtel
Recently, Airtel hogged the limelight by becoming the first telecom operator in India to have tested 5G on a commercial network in Hyderabad. It surely is a great sign of 5G “readiness” of Airtel, but we have to look beyond that. Airtel did the 5G test on its legacy 4G spectrum — 1.8GHz — which falls under the low-band 5G frequency band and it’s only slightly better than 4G. Airtel has stated that it’s going to use 1800MHz, 2300MHz, and 2100 MHz for low-band 5G services across India.
Airtel
- Vodafone Idea
Vodafone Idea has shown keen interest in the upcoming bidding process of 5G spectrums, but experts believe that its financials might not allow the company to buy spectrums between 3.3GHz – 3.6GHz. Along with Airtel, Vodafone Idea is also hit by AGR Dues and the company’s loss is widening day by day. Not to mention, Vodafone Idea’s 1800MHz spectrum license is about to get expired so in the next auction, Vodafone Idea will perhaps look to renew its license rather than buy new radio spectrums.
Vodafone Idea
So that was our in-depth explainer on 5G in India and what major telecom operators are up to with their 5G preparedness. As we went through the article, it’s clear that Jio is looking to offer premium 5G services across the country and is moving in a unique direction. As for Airtel, you are likely to get sub-6GHz 5G in cities and low-band 5G in rural areas in the near future.
