Madhya Pradesh Government announced that Bhopal would be the first smart city in India to be 5G-enabled.
In the next four months, the capital city of one of India’s largest states would test 5G internet services in certain areas, allowing inhabitants access to high-speed internet.
It has now joined a list of Indian cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Lucknow, and Bengaluru, that the Department of Telecom has stated would be the first to receive 5G services.
In February’s Budget 2022, Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister, revealed that deployment of 5G services in India might begin by the end of 2022.
The spectrum auction is likely to be held in the middle of the year, although no specific details have been set.
According to the Department of Telecom, 5G testing sites have already been established in a few locations. Gurugram, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, and Gandhinagar are among the cities on the list.
Although Bhopal was not on the list, the Madhya Pradesh government has said that it would be the first city in the state to get 5G services.
India’s top telecom operators, Airtel, Jio, and Vi India, are yet to reveal any specifics concerning 5G testing sites in Bhopal.
Meanwhile, all three businesses have been running trials in other large cities. For instance, Airtel announced that it is ready to launch 5G in India as soon as the spectrum auction is completed. Jio and Vi offer comparable plans.
Currently, there are a variety of 5G phones available in India at different price points. The Telecom companies said that having simple access to 5G phones would help them reach a larger user base.
Tariffs for 5G services are likely to be similar to those for 4G. According to Airtel, customers would not be charged a premium for 5G services. It means that, for the time being, users may not have to pay anything more to use 5G.
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