India's second-largest telecom, Bharti Airtel, has announced that its 5G services have gone live in 8 Indian cities.
The company has revealed that its 5G services are functional and ready for customer use in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, and Varanasi.
The 5G service needs two things: A 5G-enabled smartphone and an area where 5G is available. According to the company, users will not be required to change their SIM cards since existing 4G SIMs are 5G enabled. Moreover, customers will be availing of 5G services at the existing 4G prices, but the service is optional, depending on user discretion.
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Customers will be able to enjoy speeds 20-30 times higher than the current speed with super fast call connection and excellent voice experience. The company has also updated it's mobile app to include a feature that lets customers check whether their phone or their location supports 5G. Moreover, the app also lets the customer know if they need a software update to enable the 5G service.
Although the service has been successfully launched, iPhone users are unable to access the service. According to Airtel CTO Randeep Sekhon, Apple has not enabled 5G services on devices in India & and they are collaborating to test the 5G services in India.
"For us, our customers are at the core of everything we do. Our solution will therefore work on any 5G handset and the existing SIM that customers have," Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO of Airtel, said in a statement.
It has also been reported that Airtel is planning to move to a Standalone (SA) mod5ge of 5G in a few years when the demand for the same evolves. Their current mode is Non-Standalone (NSA), which straddles the existing 4G infrastructure to offer 5G speeds.
The company has disclosed its plans to cover every major city and urban area by the end of December 2023 and all over India by March 2024.
The stock of Airtel closed at Rs 793.10 per share on Friday.
Article by Aman Agarwal.
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