Prime Minister Narendra Modi was all praises about 5G, the next-gen network connectivity services, during his address at the launch of the Mission Schools of Excellence in Gujarat's Gandhinagar. The prime minister spoke about all benefits that 5G will bring, including a complete overhaul of the education sector as a whole. 


“Recently, the nation has entered the fifth generation (5G) era of mobile and Internet services. We have used Internet services up to 4G so far. Now, 5G is about to bring a major change,” PM Modi said during his address. 


He went on to note that 5G will go beyond the prevalent structure of smart classrooms and smart teaching, taking it to the “next level.” The prime minister also made a nod to next-gen services that 5G will help permeate across sectors and among the masses, including virtual reality (VR) and Internet of Things (IoT). He said that thanks to 5G, schools will be able to reap the benefits of VR and IoT.  


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PM Modi officially launched 5G in India on October 1 as part of the India Mobile Congress summit. The next-gen service will bring significantly better speeds and coverage to smartphone users in India, bringing them at par with broadband speeds. 


Following the announcement, Bharti Airtel has already rolled out 5G services in eight cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, and Varanasi. 


Reliance Jio, on the other hand, has kicked off beta trials in four cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi. 


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Jio's 5G network has shown a top median download speed of close to 600 Mbps, while Bharti Airtel's network has posted a top speed of about 516 Mbps, broadband speed research firm Ookla said in a report.


More cities are expected to get 5G access within 2023. 


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Users will need a 5G-enabled phone to access the next-gen speeds. Several OEMs are yet to roll out software updates to enable 5G support on handsets. Vivo announced that it will start rolling out its 5G update later this month. Samsung said customers can expect software updates starting November, while Apple is expected to start rolling out 5G updates in December.