5G in India
5G smartphones are now available in India but there is no 5G network available in the country. Countries like Japan, China, United Kingdom, South Korea are already using 5G networking but India is nowhere to be found in the list. In India, the spectrum is not yet auctioned.
Here’s everything you need to know about 5G in India.
5G and its advantages
5G is the fifth-generation wireless network technology. 5G is a successor to the 4G network which is currently used by most of the people around the world. There are many advantages of this new wireless technology. Some of the main advantages of 5G are it has great bandwidth (signal processing), faster downloading and uploading speed. According to some estimates, by 2023, 5G technology will support more than 10% of the world’s mobile connections.
Availability of 5G in India
Developed countries like USA, Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea and China have already been using this fast 5G networking. Nowadays even rural areas of India have 4G connectivity but, 5G in India is still a dream for Indian internet users. There was a time when there were so many network provider companies but now only Airtel, Jio, Vodafone-Idea and BSNL (by the government of India) are in the working phase. These network operators are having tough times in India right now and this makes India still far away from the 5G network.
Government of India has planned the auction of the 5G spectrum in the second half of 2020, but the plane could be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roadblock for 5G in India
Right now the biggest roadblock for operators to bring start 5G in India is going to be the price of the spectrum which is around Rs. 492 crores per MHz. As we know the network providers in India aren’t in good condition due to some government policies.
Network operators will have to pay around Rs. 50,000 crores to buy the minimum required spectrum to start 5G service in India at the initial stage which is 100 MHz. With this price, it would be interesting to see how network companies manage to buy the spectrum with the current situation.
Is India ready for 5G?
We Indian internet users are eagerly waiting for 5G in India but is India really ready for 5G? We know the roadblocks for 5G in India but this is not the only one roadblock for 5G, but there are also many other problems which are affecting the operators to start 5G in India. In 2020 the world is suffering from Corona Virus we don’t really know when and how the world would step out from this serious problem, the world would not be the same after the end of this pandemic that for sure. So this pandemic is going to affect the network providers which affect the availability of 5G in India directly.
We are already complaining that the price we are paying to the operators to use 4G in India is too high, and the truth is the price that we will have to pay to use 5G is going to much costlier than the 4G price we are paying right now.
Should you buy a 5G phone in India?
5G-ready phones like Samsung Galaxy S20, Huawei, iQoo are already in the Indian market but before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were expecting 5G to reach in India by 2023 but now we can’t really tell when 5G is coming to India so, buying a 5G enabled phone in India does not make any sense right now especially when 5G enabled phones cost more than the 4G phones. On average, a person doesn’t use the same smartphone for more than 3 years so, if you buy a 5G-ready phone right now then the chances are very less you would end up using 5G on the same phone.
In the end, we can only wait and watch how and when we can use 5G in India.
