The CEO of Bharti Airtel, Gopal Vittal has announced that the telco will roll out its 5G network in metro cities first. Notably, the company announced that it’s ready to deploy 5G in a “matter of months”. However, if you are in a smaller town, you may have to wait longer before the connectivity arrives near you.
Also read: Airtel ready to deploy 5G in a “matter of months”, demonstrates live 5G service in Hyderabad
Vittal also announced that Airtel already has a future-proof mobile broadband infrastructure, which can be utilised to offer faster 5G services. According to the top executive, the telco is eyeing the sub-GHz spectrum in the upcoming spectrum auctions to deploy 5G and, renew the 1,800MHz spectrum as well as add more spectrum in the 2,300MHz band. Let’s take a look at all details.
Bharti Airtel will rollout 5G network in metro cities first
Airtel will roll out 5G in metro cities first
According to ET Telecom, Vittal said that Airtel would be looking to roll out the 5G services in metro or large cities of the country first. As per the CEO, 5G-enabled smartphones are quite expensive at the moment and a large population of the country is still using a 4G device. This is the reason why the telco is considering a big city launch before rolling it nationwide.
The head honcho further confirmed that Airtel is already future-proof as the current core and radio equipment of the mobile broadband network will not require replacement for deploying 5G. This will help Airtel save on CapEx spends on deploying 5G, which is the capital expenditure required to upgrade the equipment.
Additionally, Vittal revealed that Airtel has no plans to enter the 5G smartphone industry like Jio as the company believes it to be a value-destructive strategy. Notably, Jio has announced that it will launch affordable 5G smartphones in India, in partnership with Google.