According to a tweet by the National Broadband Mission (NBM), the Prime Minister might launch 5G services in India on October 1, 2022, at the India Mobile Congress (IMC). However, the tweet was later deleted.
The IMC is an annual event which will see strong participation from industry, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi). Earlier, in July 2022, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology, had said that 5G services will be available in India from October 2022 in a phased manner. Later in August 2022, the minister also asked telecom operators to start preparing for the roll out of 5G services in the country, following the speedy issuance of spectrum allocation letters.
Separately, Jio announced that it will introduce 5G wireless services by Diwali or second half of October 2022, starting with the four cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. The operator also noted that 5G services would be rapidly expanded to other cities and towns in phases over 18 months, so as to cover the entire country by December 2023. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel had, in September 2022, said that it expects to launch 5G services in a month’s time, covering key metros by December 2022 and urban areas by the end of 2023.
