Reliance Jio said that the 5G launch in Andhra Pradesh required an investment or $756 million
Indian telecommunications operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has launched its 5G services in Andhra Pradesh state, the telco said in a release.
The carrier said that 5G technology will be initially available in the cities of Tirumala, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur. Reliance Jio also said that this recent launch in Andhra Pradesh required an investment or $756 million.
During the launch, the telco demonstrated the benefits of 5G in the field of healthcare, through the Jio Community Clinic medical kit, and its AR-VR device, Jio Glass.
“By December 2023, Jio True 5G services will be made available in every town and village of Andhra Pradesh,” said Gudivada Amarnath, IT Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Reliance Jio is currently offering 5G services in nearly 50 cities across India. Some of the cities where the telco already provides this technology include Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Nathdwara, Pune, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.
Since Jio is offering the 5G connectivity on an invitational basis, users living in 5G enabled cities with 5G compatible smartphones will get the invite.
Reliance Jio Infocomm had initially announced the launch of the beta trial of its 5G services in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Varanasi in October.
Earlier this year, Reliance Jio Infocomm announced 5G contracts with Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia. The deal with Ericsson marks the first partnership between Jio and Ericsson for radio access network deployment in the country.
Ericsson said that its energy-efficient 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) products and solutions and E-band microwave mobile transport solutions will be deployed in Jio’s 5G network.
Meanwhile, Nokia said that it has been selected as a major supplier by Reliance Jio to supply 5G Radio Access Network equipment from its AirScale portfolio countrywide in a multi-year deal.
Reliance Jio had previously secured a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G across 700MHz, 3.5GHz, and 26 GHz bands. Jio is the only operator with the 700 MHz low-band spectrum.
Jio, which is offering 5G services via Standalone (SA) architecture, has announced plans to reach nationwide coverage with 5G by December next year.
Indian operators have already deployed almost 21,000 5G base stations across the country as of the end of November, according to recent data from the country’s Department of Telecom (DoT).
According to the official data, Reliance Jio Infocomm has deployed a total of 17,687 5G base stations while rival telco Bharti Airtel deployed 3,293 base stations. The city with the highest number of 5G base stations as of the end of last month was Delhi, with 5,829, followed by Maharashtra (4,051), Gujarat (2,892), Tamil Nadu (2,229) and West Bengal (2,219).
