5G Network Live In More Than 3 Lakh Sites Within 10 Months Of Launch In India: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Telecom operators have installed over 3 lakh 5G mobile sites within 10 months of launch of the service, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday.

As per COAI, India needs to allocate more mid-band spectrum, such as 6GHz, to provide seamless 5G mobile service across the country.

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Telecom operators have installed over 3 lakh 5G mobile sites within 10 months of the launch of the service, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday. The 5G sites have been installed across 714 districts. "The world's fastest 5G rollout continues. Over 3 lakh 5G sites installed in 714 districts," Vaishnaw said on social media platform Koo.

Telecom operators Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the only telecom operators rolling out 5G services in the country. Data shared by the minister shows that over 3 lakh sites have been installed within 10 months of 5G service launch on October 1 last year.

According to official data, 1 lakh sites were installed within five months and 2 lakh sites within eight months of the launch of the service.

The 2-lakh mark for 5G sites was reached in May when the 5G site at Gangotri was inaugurated by the IT minister and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Over 600 districts in the country were covered within 200 days of rollout, which is one of the fastest in the world, Union Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan had said in April. Last month, Ericsson Mobility Report said that 5G subscriptions in India were estimated to have reached about 10 million by 2022 end and could account for about 57 per cent of mobile subscriptions in the country by the end of 2028, making it "the fastest growing" 5G region globally.

The Prime Minister launched 5G services on October 1, 2022, and within eight months, 2,00,000 sites covering 700 districts had been installed, says another report. The 5G network is now available in all 28 states and eight Union Territories. This is one of the world’s fastest 5G rollouts.

According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), India needs to allocate more mid-band spectrum, such as 6GHz, to provide seamless 5G mobile service across the country. Otherwise, if less spectrum is allocated in the 6GHz band, the 5G download speed would be reduced by 50 per cent when fully deployed. In a letter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the COAI stated that mid-band spectrum like 6GHz provides a balance of wide coverage and capacity, which is critical to the rapid and cost-efficient deployment of 5G mobile networks in India. This would meet the exponentially increasing data demands, that too at affordable terms.