India to launch 5G services by October: Ashwini Vaishnaw

New Delhi, Aug 25: Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday announced that the 5G services in India are likely to get operational by October.

"We are planning to roll out 5G services rapidly, telecom operators are working in that regard and installations are being done. Hopefully, we should be launching 5G services by October and then would further scale up in cities and towns," he added.

"Our expectations are that 5G should reach in every part of the country in the next two to three years. We will ensure that it remains affordable. The industry is focusing on both urban as well as rural areas," he added.

"Industry has started hiring for 5G infrastructure and within 2-3 years 5G services will reach every part of the country. We have requested the industry to make 5G charges affordable. Our mobile services charges are the lowest in the world. We will get world-class 5G services," he said.

Vaishnaw said that all the steps needed for the very rapid rollout of 5G are moving forward in a very nice and systematic way. "As all of you are aware the spectrum auction was successfully concluded. The letters for harmonization frequency allocation have been issued well in time and simultaneously we have all been working for simplifying the right of way and installation processes," he added.

The DoT has received payment of around Rs 17,876 crore from service providers -- Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Adani Data Networks and Vodafone Idea for spectrum they won in a recent auction.

Reportedly, the 5G services would be rolled out in a phased manner. In the first phase only 13 selected cities would get the fast speed 5G internet services.

5G services: These Cities Are Likely To Get the Services First

• Ahmedabad
• Bengaluru
• Chandigarh
• Chennai
• Delhi
• Gandhinagar
• Gurugram
• Hyderabad
• Jamnagar
• Kolkata
• Lucknow
• Mumbai
• Pune