It looks like Vi is finally preparing to launch its 5G networks commercially in India, over a year after rivals Reliance Jio and Airtel announced their 5G services in the country. As per the company’s website, Vi 5G network will be rolled out starting with select places in Pune and Delhi.
“Get ready to experience the potential of the Vi 5G network in India with 5G live at select places in Pune and Delhi. Seamless connectivity with Vi 5G ready SIM,” according to the Vi website. However, the website doesn’t mention when its 5G network will be available in these cities.
Earlier this year, Vi revealed in a blog post that its 4G SIM cards will be compatible with 5G smartphones. This means that Vi users with a 4G SIM card will not need to convert their SIMs in order to use the company’s 5G services.
In October 2022, Vi made its 5G network live at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. However, a timeline for the full rollout in other areas and cities has not been made official by the company as of now.
Vi To Invest Significantly To Roll Out 5G In India
Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2023 in October that over the past year, the Vi team has worked diligently to prepare the core network for 5G deployment. “In the coming quarters, Vi will initiate significant investments in order to roll out 5G network and further expand 4G coverage across the country,” he added.
Vodafone Idea revealed in its quarterly earnings report for the second quarter of 2024 (2Q24) that the company is in discussion with various network vendors for the finalisation of its 5G rollout strategy.
The company previously said it achieved speed over 3.7 gigabytes per second (Gbps) on the mmWave spectrum band during its 5G trials in the city of Pune in Maharashtra. During trials, peak download speeds of up to 1.5Gbps in the 3.5Ghz band were recorded in Gandhinagar city of Gujarat as well as Pune.
Meanwhile, telecom operators Reliance Jio and Airtel are already far ahead with the rollout of the 5G network in the country. At the seventh edition of IMC this year, Akash Ambani confirmed that there are over 125 million 5G customers in India, out of which 70 million are Jio subscribers. The company has already covered 8,000 towns/cities in India with its 5G network.
At the same event, Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal announced that the entire India will be covered with Airtel’s 5G network by March 2024. He said in his inaugural speech at the event that Airtel has already implemented its 5G services in 5,000 towns and around 20,000 villages across India.
5G Rollout By Rivals Has No Significant Impact: Vi
On how the launch of 5G by rivals has impacted Vi, CEO Akshaya Moondra said during the earnings call said the company will of course need to roll out 5G, but so far they have not seen any significant impact of 5G not being with Vi and being with competition.
“Of course, as the networks get a little more ubiquitous, experience of people on 5G will improve. So, I would say it will deliver a good experience over a period of time, but whether people are driven by the need for 5G, we’ve not seen any significant impact until now,” Moondra added.
