Chandigarh set for 5G service rollout by New Year

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 21

Residents of the city are likely to get the New Year’s gift in the form of next generation 5G technology. With the launch of the service, the download speeds would be at least 10 times faster than those of 4G.

Trials already over

Telecom service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have conducted 5G trials in the city. Bharti Airtel is expected to start 5G service from December and Reliance Jio from early next year, say sources. UT is among 13 cities where 5G services will be rolled out. Services were launched in eight cities on Oct 1.

10 times faster than 4G

• 5G service provides seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency and highly reliable communications system
• It is designed to link a much wider range of devices than smartphones with faster speeds and capacity
• Download speeds will be at least 10 times faster than 4G, offering very high volume of data with minimal delay or latency

An official of the IT Department said the ultra-fast 5G service was likely to be rolled out in the city by the end of December or early next year. He said the administration was ready to launch the service, but it would solely depend on the telecom service providers when to roll it out.

A capacity building conference on 5G was organised by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT), UT, at the Entrepreneur Development Centre, Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park, here today.

The conference was inaugurated by UT Adviser Dharam Pal and chaired by Nitin Kumar Yadav, Home Secretary-cum-Secretary IT.

The Adviser emphasised that all stakeholders — various departments of the UT Administration, Municipal Corporation, industry and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) — should work in tandem to enable smooth 5G rollout in the city.

The Secretary IT elaborated on the efforts of the Department of IT in developing an internal portal that would enable efficient and speedy grant of permissions to the telecom service provider (TSP)/infrastructure provider (IP). The workflow of the internal portal was also presented during the conference.

During the conference, attended by over 125 participants, including senior officers from Punjab, the National Broadband Mission, DoT, presented an overview of the PM Gatishakti and 5G use cases, touching upon various sectors such as health, education, etc. “As the advanced 5G infrastructure will become the nervous system of the Digital Economy and Digital Society, it is imperative to understand how 5G would change the scenario,” said Rupesh Kumar, Director IT, Chandigarh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the fifth generation or 5G telephone services on October 1 in eight cities. Chandigarh is among the 13 cities in India where 5G services will be rolled out.

The 5G mobile broadband network is the most recent upgrade. While 4G was a significant step forward in terms of allowing users to stream music and video on the move, 5G is designed to link a much wider range of devices than smartphones and to provide significantly faster speeds and capacity.

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