After receiving approval from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to begin 5G trials in India last month, Airtel has begun rolling out their mid-band 5G trial network in Gurgaon’s Cyber Hub. The test is being conducted on the 3500 MHz band and is utilizing 5G networking gear from Ericsson.
For the trials, the DoT had allotted 3500 MHz, 28 GHz and 700 MHz spectrum in Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru to Airtel. The company had already expressed being ready for 5G deployment and had earlier demonstrated 5G service in Hyderabad over its existing liberalised spectrum in the 1800MHz band.
The company is working with OPPO, OnePlus, vivo, realme and Apple to test out the 5G network trial in Cyber Park, Gurgaon and is reportedly offering throughputs up to 1Gbps.
Airtel had already announced that they will be using equipment from Nokia and Ericsson for their 5G network, while Jio revealed that they will be partnering with Samsung, Nokia and Ericsson. All major telecom companies in India are waiting to fully launch their 5G networks in India as soon as more spectrum becomes available for purchase.