1st October 2022 was the day. Honāble Prime Minister of India finally announced 5G OPEN in India at the India Mobile Congress (IMC), Delhi.
Telecom Operator Wise Update (as of 4th Oct):
At the same time, Airtel became the first operator in the country to launch & activate 5G. Initially, the 5G is activated in particular areas in 8 cities (including Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Bangalore, Gurugram, Noida & Chennai).
Three days later, on 4th October, Jio announced launch of Jio True 5G Beta Trial Services in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata & Varanasi. It is offered on invitation along with welcome offer of unlimited data allowance.
The third operator, Vodafone Idea, is still working on its 5G strategy and will make further announcements soon. But given their financial stress, we will have to see how will they manage a 5G launch. They are in a difficult situation.
Technical Stuff:
Slightly on the technical side, Airtelās 5G will be based on Non-Standalone Architecture (NSA) while Jio will be using Standalone Architecture (SA). Global experience shows that customer experience difference is immaterial. On spectrum side, Airtel will be using new 3500Mhz band for downlink and existing midband spectrum for uplink. While Jio will be using new 3500Mhz band for downlink and new 700Mhz band for uplink. Smartphone compatibility will also depend on these bands compatibility and NSA SA compatibility.
Ideally, all 5G phones should work on Airtel given NSA mode and no 700Mhz band usage. Have to see how compatibility is on Jioās network given SA mode, 700Mhz band and carrier aggregation.
Speed Test:
Biggest question will be how fast is 5G in India. Obviously, theoretically 1Gbps speeds are possible on 5G but realistically you should expect 200-300 Mbps download speeds in India.
Screenshot demonstrating real life 5G speed in Gurugram on Airtel:
Steps to get 5G in India:
- Get a 5G compatible smartphone
- Insert SIM of telecom operator which has launched 5G in your area. No new SIM required
- Get / install 5G software patch through OTA sent by device manufacturer
- Manually enable 5G by going in SIM settings and choosing 5G as preferred network
Smartphone Compatibility:
As per media articles, for a month or so, none of the iphones will be supporting 5G given Apple is still working on the required software update. Similarly, for next few weeks, 5G will not work on the vast majority of Samsungās line-up, except the models such as the Flip 4, Fold 4, S21 FE, Galaxy S22, S22 Ultra & S22+, and some versions of A and M series. Regarding OnePlus, for sometime 5G will not work on OnePlus8, 8T, 8Pro, 9R, Nord2, 9RT, though the remaining models will be able to access 5G.
Nothing Phone(1):
While there is nothing official about any 5G compatibility in India by Nothing but following are good enough reasons to prove that our Nothing Phone(1) can use 5G in India out of the box š„³š„³
- In SIM settings, there is already an option to choose 5G as a preferred network
- SIM settings has options like āSmart 5Gā and ā5G standaloneā
- On paper, Nothing Phone(1) supports all 5G bands. Big win
- Discord community users including @tamizh_senthamizh#0248 (theguywhousedtocomplain) Link and @Anubhav (1)#9344 Link are already getting ā5Gā logo on Phone(1) in Chennai and Gurugram
SO WE ARE ALL SET FOR 5G WITH PHONE(1). Nothing to worry.
Happy to discuss anything on your mind about 5G in India. Comment below the like button š
