PM Narendra Modi Launches 5G Services In Select Cities Across India Today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today (1 October) launched the 5G services in India. He also inaugurated the sixth edition of the India Mobile Congress at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

The 5G services will be initially launched in select cities and will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years.

During the launch event, the three major telecom service providers in India - Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea - demonstrated one use case each in front of PM Modi to showcase the potential of 5G technology in India.

The three telcos had recently acquired over 51 Gigahertz spectrum across the country.

PM Modi also visited an exhibition where he witnessed the demonstration of the use of 5G technology in multiple areas.

The various use cases demonstrated in front of PM Modi in the exhibition included precision drone-based farming; High-Security Routers and AI-based Cyber Threat Detection Platform; Automated Guided Vehicles; and Ambupod – Smart Ambulance.

Further, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/Mix Reality in Education and Skill Development; Sewage Monitoring System; Smart-Agri Programme; Health diagnostics, and several other use cases were also demonstrated.

The launch of the 5G services is expected to herald the dawn of a new era in the country.

Benefits of 5G

The 5G or the Fifth Generation technology offers ultra-high internet speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G), and lag-free connectivity. It can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.

In addition to powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), Fifth Generation or 5G would enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming among others.

The 5G tech will also increase energy efficiency and network efficiency.

According to a PMO release, 5G will help in real-time monitoring of disasters, and precision agriculture, minimising the role of humans in dangerous industrial operations such as in deep mines, offshore activities, etc.

Further, unlike existing mobile communication networks, 5G networks will allow tailoring of requirements for each of these different use cases within the same network.

5G’s impact on India’s economy

5G technology will help the country leapfrog the traditional barriers to development, spur innovations by startups and business enterprises as well as advance the ‘Digital India’ vision, the Ministry of Communications said in a release.

As per the ministry, the cumulative economic impact of 5G on India is expected to reach $450 billion by 2035.

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