Airtel’s mid-band 5G trial network live in Gurgaon’s Cyber Hub

Bharti Airtel has been on the move for the last few weeks and has deployed additional spectrum at several regions/circles of India. Now, as per sources, the telco has made its 5G network live in Gurgaon’s Cyber Hub with the help of the mid-band spectrum (3500 MHz) as part of the 5G trials all the operators have been allowed to conduct.

The second-largest telecom operator of India has followed all the guidelines of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the trials. During the results, the 5G network of Bharti Airtel was able to deliver a throughput of over 1 Gbps speed.

If you look closely Airtel is using its camouflaged antenna in green which is an existing 4G infra and the one antenna in white colour is a 5G radio in 3.5Ghz band.

Bharti Airtel has mid-band spectrum for 5G in these regions
The DoT has allocated Bharti Airtel mid-band spectrum (3500 MHz) in four regions/circles of India – Mumbai, Kolkata Bengaluru, and Delhi/NCR. The telco is soon expected to test its 5G networks with the help of the mid-band spectrum in other regions of the country as well.

The announcement of 5G trials was a big relief for the Indian telecom operator. Especially for Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio who already have 5G ready networks. The other two operators, Vodafone Idea and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) do not have plans of rolling out 5G networks any time soon.

It is worth noting that Bharti Airtel became the first operator in the country to test a 5G networks using spectrum in the 1800 MHz band with the help of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology.

This is a good sign for the operator. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have both said that their mobile networks are 5G ready and all they are waiting for is the adequate spectrum from the government. The possibility of 5G spectrum auctions getting conducted by the end of this year looks very bleak. Regardless, this is a positive development for Airtel and the Indian telecom industry is moving towards a faster and reliable connectivity era with 5G. TelecomTalk