5G To Bridge Digital Divide In Rural Areas: Airtel CTO

Addressing a virtual press briefing on Tuesday, Airtel chief technical officer (CTO), Randeep Sekhon said that 5G technology will bridge the digital divide in rural areas of the country. The statement comes in light of India’s first rural 5G trial conducted by Airtel in partnership with Ericsson.

The trial was conducted on the outskirts of Delhi-NCR and the results, according to Sekhon, show immense possibilities for India to bridge the digital divide in rural areas. The focus of the trials was on the range of the network and the speeds which were being delivered on smartphones.

“For 10 Kms, we were able to show 5G coverage in NSA Mode and we were able to show a 100 Mbps speed on a 5G smartphone which means in rural areas you will get an internet experience with speeds reaching 100 Mbps,” Sekhon explained.

Sekhon further told that on the FWA Terminal, they were able to achieve speeds up to 200 Mbps. “If we use the FWA terminal which has got a better gain and is mounted on a static location then you can get speeds up to 200 Mbps at a distance of more than 10 KMs,” he said.

Sekhon also highlighted that all the applications of 5G which are discussed in the mainstream may give an idea that the technology is urban-centric but 5G is for the rural as well. Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson Southeast Asia, Oceania, and India reiterated that 5G is indeed for all and will serve as a "socio-economic multiplier" for the country.

Over the past few months, Bharti Airtel and Ericsson have teamed up to showcase enhanced speeds of more than 1Gbps on a live 5G network set up at Cyber Hub in Gurugram using Bharti's 3,500 MHz trial spectrum.

In January this year, the two companies also showcased Ericsson Spectrum Sharing capabilities on a commercially deployed installed base of 1800 MHz liberalized frequencies in Hyderabad to give consumers their first experience of 5G from a live commercial network.

Sekhon expressed hope regarding auctions in early 2022 and said that within two quarters after the auction, 5G networks can go live.