Airtel says its network is now 5G ready, shows live 5G services

Airtel on Thursday announced that it has become the country’s first telco to successfully demonstrate and orchestrate live 5G service over a commercial network in Hyderabad city. Airtel noted that it did this over its existing liberalised spectrum in the 1800 MHz band through the NSA (Non Stand Alone) network technology. The telco further noted that it used a “first of its kind, dynamic spectrum sharing to operate 5G and 4G concurrently within the same spectrum block.” This demonstration has emphatically validated the 5G readiness of Airtel’s network across all domains – Radio, Core and Transport.

Airtel claims that 5G will be capable of delivering 10x speeds, 10x latency and 100x concurrency when compared to existing technologies. It noted that in Hyderabad, users were able to download a full length movie in a matter of seconds on a 5G phone, a demonstration which has underlined the company’s technology capabilities. The full impact of the 5G experience, however, will be available to Airtel’s customers, when adequate spectrum is available and government approvals are received. users will not be required to switch SIM cards when the network is available for them.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel in a statement said, “I am very proud of our engineers who have worked tirelessly to showcase this incredible capability in Tech City, Hyderabad today. Every one of our investments is future proofed as this game changing test in Hyderabad proves. With Airtel being the first operator to demonstrate this capability, we have shown again that we have always been the first in India to pioneer new technologies in our quest for empowering Indians everywhere.”

“We believe India has the potential to become a global hub for 5G innovation. To make that happen we need the eco system to come together applications, devices and network innovation. We are more than ready to do our bit,” he added.