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Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio will each debut their 5G services on Saturday in Varanasi and a village close to Ahmedabad tomorrow.
Jio service will be available in Ahmedabad, while Airtel 5G will launch in Varanasi, as per the report. In the beginning, just a few sites will offer 5G service; therefore it will only be accessible in a few parts of Varanasi and Ahmedabad. All areas of the cities will eventually receive the service.
Jio seems to be on track for 5G deployment in four metro cities by Diwali as it disclosed during its AGM 2022 back in August. As for Airtel, the company is planning to cover key metro cities by December followed by a pan India rollout in 2023-24.
In the most recent 5G auction, telecom providers bought spectrum worth Rs 1.5 trillion across multiple bands. Jio paid Rs 88,078 crore, while Airtel paid Rs 43,084 crore for the spectrum. There are still some unanswered questions around the price of data plans for 5G and the timing of wider deployment, though reports suggest that the 5G tariff plans will be more or less similar to the current 4G plans to encourage mass adoption. Currently, it appears like tomorrow's release is primarily intended for enterprises, with the general public likely joining the service by the end of the year.
5G price in India is expected to be along similar lines as 4G, as telcos initially aim for higher adoption rates across the country. 5G recharge plans should be announced soon.