Bharti Airtel, Nokia Launch 5G Trial Network in Mumbai's Phoenix Mall

Sources have reported that Bharti Airtel and Nokia have turned on their 5G trial network in Mumbai's Phoenix Mall, in Lower Parel. Sources also report that the telco will start up a similar trial in Kolkata soon.

Bharti Airtel Gets 5G Up and Running in Mumbai

Notably, the telco is using 5G gear from Nokia to conduct the trial in the mid-band 3.5 GHz. As per sources, the trial network delivers speeds in excess of 1 Gbps, with ultra-low latency. The DoT had allocated the spectrum that Airtel has used in this trial; along with the 28 GHz band, and the 700 MHz band the telco has enough spectrum to run 5G trials.

The telco has the access to the spectrum in Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. Also, Bharti Airtel is not the only telco to receive test spectrum from the telecom department; Jio and Vodafone Idea also received spectrum in the same bands.

The telco had become the first telco in India to test 5G in Hyderabad using the 1.8 GHz band. The telco had also stated that it is ready to launch commercial 5G services in the country; it has deployed massive MIMO across the country and will launch commercial services shortly, as soon as it has spectrum.

Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have also kicked off their 5G trials in Navi Mumbai and Pune and Gandhinagar, respectively. The former is testing the 5G stack it developed locally; the latter has partnered with Ericsson.

For Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, rolling out 5G now remains a matter of time. They have 5G-ready networks already and are waiting to buy spectrum when the government organizes a 5G spectrum auction. Over the last two months, both the telcos have deployed additional spectrum and massive MIMO in crucial circles; they have coped with the extra load on the network due to Covid-19, and have made their networks future proof at the same time.