Jio revealed the Jio 5G deployment timeline at its 45th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in 2022. This Diwali, consumers will be able to use Jio’s “True 5G” in significant cities including Delhi, Kolkata, and more. Here are some specifics.
Jio’s True 5G, which will solely use the Standalone (SA) 5G infrastructure, will reach users in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai in October. For those who don’t know, Diwali, this year, is on October 24. So, we can expect the official availability to begin at the end of October.
When the recent 5G spectrum auctions were completed, it was anticipated that the 5G deployment would begin in October. 13 cities, including Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Jamnagar, and Kolkata, are anticipated to be the initial ones.
By December 2023, Jio hopes to have Jio True 5G available to all Indian subscribers. Other telecom providers like Vodafone Idea (Vi), Airtel, and others plan to offer 5G services by then as well.
Recall that during the auction, Jio purchased the most 5G spectrum. Its spectrum spans the 700MHz, 800MHz, 1800MHz, 3300MHz, and 26GHz bands for a total of 26,772 MHz. Rs 88,078 crore were spent by the telco. Jio also received 1,000 MHz of 26 GHz mmWave spectrum and the highest sub-GHz 5G spectrum across 22 Indian circles.
Jio has also worked with international players to develop its 5G services. This includes Intel and Meta for immersive technology, Google and Microsoft for the Azure ecosystem, and Google for the introduction of the “ultra-affordable” 5G devices.
Additionally, Jio and Qualcomm worked together to create 5G solutions for India that could later be adopted by other nations.