Almost all the countries are now LTE-only, but in India, only one operator has complete pan-India 4G coverage. And the operator is the newcomer Reliance Jio, the Mukesh Ambani-led company.
Most of the countries across the world have already started developments for 5G. And yeah, India is one among them. Operators such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and BSNL already announced their collaborations with telecom gear makers such as Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson to start working on bringing the 5G era to India.
However, we still have a long way to go, when it comes to 5G developments in the country. Bharti Airtel, India's leading telecom operator has introduced the 4G technology to India back in 2012. However, the operator recently announced that it's now a pan-India 4G operator.
As said earlier, Reliance Jio is India's LTE-only operator, meaning it offers network in 4G technology only, which is a good thing. On the other hand, top incumbent telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular offer services in all three technologies- 2G, 3G, and 4G.
So, who will start the 5G era in India first? Without any doubt, it would be Reliance Jio because it will be easy for the operator to convert its network infrastructure to 5G technology.
Reliance Jio also announced that it will be soon moving to LTE-A, meaning LTE-Advanced technology. LTE-A is a marginal upgrade to LTE network offering better download speed and improved network availability.
Reliance Jio already announced its partnership with South Korean giant Samsung to deploy 5G network infrastructure in the country.
State-run telecom operator, BSNL has inked a deal with Ericsson to bring 5G services to India. However, the funny part is, BSNL is yet to start offering 4G services. BSNL is slated to offer 4G services since 2014, but that didn't happen until now. While the company is expected to roll out 4G services by the end of 2017, 5G is still a distant dream for BSNL users.
Airtel will roll out VoLTE service by the end of March 2018, which will be a huge move by the company. After Reliance Jio, Airtel will be in the queue to start offering 5G services in India. After all, Airtel is the operator which introduced 4G to Indian consumers.
Vodafone India and Idea Cellular will become a single operator in next six-quarter and could bring 5G services by the end of 2020 or later. Other operators such as RCom and Aircel are now looking to clear its debt first and there are no words on 5G services from both the operators.
As of now, the 5G era is expected to begin by the end of 2018 in countries such as China, Hong Kong, and the US. Nevertheless, Indian consumers are likely to enjoy 5G by the end of 2020 or later.