Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, launched 5G services in India on October 1, 2022, along with indigenous 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) Core, developed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), an independent Indian government-owned telecommunications technology development centre, under the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Consequently, India would be among the select few nations such as Finland (Nokia), Sweden (Ericsson), China (Huawei and ZTE), and South Korea (Samsung).
Initially, the first 13 cities, where the 5G services would be available include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, and Jamnagar. Eventually, 5G services would be available across the country. With 5G, India is setting a global standard in telecom technology for the first time.
About 5G Network
The 5G network is a newer generation of data speeds that would make downloads faster. Besides, it would pave the way for a number of new use cases from cloud gaming to autonomous vehicles. A new radio technology and a different network architecture would be used to deliver higher bandwidth, lower latency than 4G (LTE), and 3G spectrum networks that are still operational. [Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is a fourth-generation (4G) wireless standard that provides increased network capacity and speed, compared with the 3G technology] The data speeds of 5G network would be up to 10 Gbps (gigabits per second), which is 100 times faster than the 100 Mbps (megabits per second) of 4G network. Latency could be less than a millisecond in 5G networks, or 60 to 120 times better than 4G. (Latency is a measure of the time it takes for data to travel from the phone to the distant server.) However, the real-world performance could be moderately lower.
What is 5G Core?
5G Core is the backbone of 5G networks and establishes reliable and secure connectivity to the radio access network from where end users are connected. 5G Core provides users access to its services. The heart of all 5G network services, 5G Core has to be fully secure and robust and handles essential functions of mobile network including connectivity and mobility management, authentication and authorisation, subscriber data management, and policy management, among others.
5G and Limited Indigenous Resources
During the launch, an end-to-end 5G call was demonstrated using C-DOT’s NSA 5G Core, installed at BSNL, Chandigarh. The 5G radio access network (RAN), used in demonstrating the call, has been indigenously developed in India in collaboration with VVDN Technologies (Haryana), Radisys India Private Limited (Bengaluru), and WiSig Networks (Telangana).
Surprisingly, C-DOT achieved this feat with an annual budget of Rs 400 crores, and with a small team of 200 people who worked exclusively on 4G/5G, compared to the leading telecom equipment manufacturers, such as Huawei, Nokia, and Ericsson, which invest not only much on research and development, but also have large teams. Indian researchers finished much of the work on the development of the 4G and 5G Core in the last two years.
Benefits of 5G Network
Out of a wide range of benefits offered by 5G, some of them are as follows:
- 5G would help in providing seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency, and highly reliable communications.
- It would increase energy efficiency, spectrum efficiency, and network efficiency.
- 5G technology would help in connecting billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
- It would allow higher quality video services with mobility at high speed, and delivery of critical services such as telesurgery and autonomous cars, among others.
- 5G technology would help in real-time monitoring of disasters, precision agriculture, and in minimising the role of humans in dangerous industrial operations such as in deep mines, offshore activities, etc.
- Unlike existing mobile communication networks, 5G networks would allow tailoring of requirements for each of these different use cases within the same network, and
- 5G technology would give a boost to the Industrial Revolution 4.0.
Role of Network Operators
Presently, India’s network operators are working with different equipment vendors on government-authorised field trials to determine how 5G networks perform in the real world. The operators are also enhancing their network cores to handle the additional traffic loads, carried by 5G radio interfaces.
Reliance Jio and Airtel have commenced the initial launch of 5G services. Jio’s True 5G has been made available as a part of a beta trial in four cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Varanasi, and Kolkata. Jio is inviting select users to connect to its 5G network. On the other hand, Airtel’s 5G Plus is operational in metropolitan cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, besides Siliguri, Nagpur, and Varanasi where the 5G network is being deployed in a phased manner. 5G is available to Airtel users who are within the 5G network areas and have 5G-enabled smartphones.
Vodafone-Idea (Vi) has not yet announced the date of the launch.
Jio vs Airtel
Jio’s True 5G standalone network deployment would have a disadvantage initially due to a limited handset ecosystems that support their 5G network. So, Jio published a list of handsets that are compatible with its network. Unlike Jio, Airtel has not published any list of compatible handsets which would be compatible with Jio’s True 5G network in the next six months.
Jio is also the only operator with an all-IP network, an important requirement for launching 5G services. Also, Jio has support from Qualcomm and Intel for its 5G plan. Jio has designed its end-to-end 5G solutions from scratch using homegrown technologies. It would conduct 5G trials with Samsung, the supplier of its 4G network, and would also extend its partnership for 5G trials to include Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia.
Airtel has its 5G Plus on non-standalone network deployment. Google has announced to invest US$ 1 billion on Airtel, of which, US$ 700 million would be spent to acquire approximately 1.3 per cent stake in the telecom company. Airtel would work with Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, and Nokia on its 5G trials and has deployed 100 hops of 5G technology transmission equipment supplied by Huawei. (A hop, in a packet-switching network, is the trip a data packet takes from one router to another in the network.) Also, Airtel has struck deals with Cisco and Ericsson to speed up its core network, in readiness for 5G services.
Both Jio and Airtel users do not require a new SIM card to connect to the 5G network. 5G network users of Airtel and Jio would have to be close to the actual cellular towers for the network to function at full capacity. However, the location of these towers has not yet been clearly mapped out.
5G phone users may need a small update to enable 5G network. Users would not have to change their SIM, as they could digitally upgrade to a new plan.
Both the operators are yet to launch 5G tariffs.
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