Airtel, Nokia launch 5G trial network in Mumbai’s Phoenix Mall; Kolkata trial to go live soon

Bharti Airtel and its Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia have switched on their 5G field trial network in Mumbai’s Phoenix Mall in Lower Parel and will soon begin a similar trial in Kolkata, sources said.

The Sunil Mittal-led telco is conducting the trial in the 3500 MHz band using 5G gear from Nokia. The trials have delivered speeds of over 1 Gbps with ultra-low latency, sources added. A Nokia India spokesperson confirmed the development.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had recently allotted 5G trial spectrum to Airtel in 3500 MHz, 28 GHz and 700 MHz in Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru to develop India-relevant use cases on the next-gen fast wireless broadband technology. The department had also allotted spectrum to Jio and Vodafone Idea in the same bands.

Earlier this year, Airtel became the first telco in India to test 5G over a live network in Hyderabad using liberalized spectrum in 1800 MHz band. Airtel’s network is adequately ready to launch commercial 5G services in the country shortly after the availability of adequate spectrum.

Vodafone Idea, India’s third largest telecom operator, had also started 5G trials in Pune and Gandhinagar in partnership with European vendors Ericsson and Pune.

Reliance Jio, India’s top telco had also kicked off its 5G trials in Navi Mumbai to test its own 5G technology.

Allotment of 5G trial spectrum is particularly crucial for Jio and Airtel, who already have 5G-ready networks and have recently bulked up on crucial airwaves in the recent auction to cater to the surge in data usage amid Covid and also future-proof themselves ahead of 5G rollouts.