Vodafone Idea joins 5G race

One of the major telecom players Vodafone Idea (Vi) has mostly stayed silent when it comes to 5G services whereas its competitors Jio and Airtel have been talking about how they are going to bring and roll out 5G services in India. 

But Vi is also not going to stay behind Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel when it comes to 5G. Vodafone Idea is in race and has already started testing 5G networks. This was recently announced by the Managing Director (MD) of the telco, Ravinder Takkar. Vi started conducting its 5G trials in several cities and states of the country with the help of two foreign telecom equipment vendors.

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The European telecom vendors in the market, including Nokia and Ericsson, are helping Vodafone Idea with conducting its 5G trials. As per the management, the trials are currently taking place in two different states. The third-largest telecom operator is testing its 5G networks in Gandhinagar, Gujarat and Pune, Maharashtra.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had assigned Vodafone Idea and the other operators in the country spectrum for testing their 5G solutions and networks. Both the telecom giants Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have already started their 5G trials. Jio is testing its 5G networks in Mumbai, whereas Airtel is testing 5G in Gurgaon.

Recently, the Department of Telecommunication allotted a spectrum to MTNL to conduct trials in Delhi. It will conduct trials in partnership with C-DoT," the media reports said.   

On the contrary, the state-run telecom operator BSNL is not conducting 5G trials in the country as it is focussing on 4G services.

According to the monthly subscriber data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the total number of telephone subscribers in India improved to 120.1 crore at the end of March 2021, a monthly growth rate of 1.12 percent.

About the Company:
Vodafone Idea Ltd is an India-based telecom service provider. The Company provides pan India Voice and Data services across second generation (2G), third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) platform.

_{Disclaimer: The above report is compiled from information available on the public platforms. These are not buy or sell recommendations.}