Airtel today announced that it has successfully conducted India’s first 5G trial in the 700 MHz band in partnership with Nokia using 5G trial spectrum allocated to Airtel by the Department of Telecom. This comes after the company’s last month announcement that said that it has conducted India’s first 5G network demonstration in a rural geography in Bhaipur Bramanan village on the outskirts of Delhi/NCR.
The demonstration was conducted on the outskirts of Kolkata, and the company said that it was also the first 5G trial in Eastern India.
With the use of 700 MHz band, Airtel and Nokia were able to achieve high speed wireless broadband network coverage of 40 KM between two 3GPP standard 5G sites in real life conditions. Airtel used equipment from Nokia’s 5G portfolio, which included Nokia AirScale radios and standalone (SA) core.
Randeep Singh Sekhon, CTO – Bharti Airtel said:
Back in 2012, Airtel launched India’s first 4G service in Kolkata. Today, we are delighted to conduct India’s first 5G demo in the coveted 700 MHz band in the city to showcase the power of this technology standard. We believe that with the right pricing of 5G spectrum in the upcoming auctions, India can unlock the digital dividend and build a truly connected society with broadband for all.
Naresh Asija, VP and Head of Bharti CT, Nokia, said:
5G deployment using 700Mhz spectrum is helping communications service providers across the world to cost-effectively provide mobile broadband in remote areas, where typically it is challenging for them to set up the network infrastructure. Nokia is at the forefront in the development of the global 5G ecosystem, and we look forward to supporting Airtel on its 5G journey.