Airtel conducts India’s first rural 5G trial along with Ericsson

New Delhi: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel and equipment maker Ericsson on Tuesday said they have conducted India’s first 5G network trial in a rural location, demonstrating the potential that 5G can unleash in bridging the digital divide. The demonstration took place in Bhaipur Bramanan village on the outskirts of Delhi-NCR using 5G trial spectrum allocated […]

New Delhi: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel and equipment maker Ericsson on Tuesday said they have conducted India’s first 5G network trial in a rural location, demonstrating the potential that 5G can unleash in bridging the digital divide.

The demonstration took place in Bhaipur Bramanan village on the outskirts of Delhi-NCR using 5G trial spectrum allocated to Airtel by the Department of Telecom.

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The trial showcases the massive potential offered by 5G towards bridging the digital divide by enabling access to high-speed broadband through solutions such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services.

Put simply, 5G is the next-generation network technology that enables connecting virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices at ultra-high speeds and responsiveness, and with low latency.

“5G will be a transformational technology when it comes to delivering broadband coverage to the last mile through use cases like FWA and contribute to a more inclusive digital economy,” Randeep Singh Sekhon, Airtel CTO said at a virtual event.

Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South east Asia, Oceania and India said 5G will serve as a “socio-economic multiplier” for the country.

As per a study by Ericsson, on an average, a 10 per cent increase in the mobile broadband adoption ratio causes a 0.8 per cent increase in GDP, Mirtillo noted.
Over the past few months, Bharti Airtel and Ericsson have teamed up to showcase enhanced speeds of more than 1Gbps on a live 5G network set up at Cyber Hub in Gurugram using Bharti’s 3,500 MHz trial spectrum.

In January this year, the two companies also showcased Ericsson Spectrum Sharing capabilities on a commercially deployed installed base of 1800 MHz liberalised frequencies in Hyderabad to give consumers their first experience of 5G from a live commercial network.