Govt has set in motion plans to auction 5G spectrum by asking the telecom regulator to suggest a starting price for such airwaves in the 3400 MHz to 3600 MHz bands. Trai will soon start consultations for that purpose.

5G NETWORKS WILL RUN ON WHICH SPECTRUM BANDS?
5G networks could run on the 3400 MHz, 3500 MHz and 3600 MHz spectrum bands. Airwaves in the 3500 MHz band are considered ideal for the first wave of 5G. Going forward, the millimetre wave spectrum may play a significant role in 5G networks. They are called millimetre waves as they vary in length from 1 to 10 mm unlike radio waves (measuring tens of centimetres in length) that serve present smartphones. Millimetre waves are broadcast on frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz. Till date, they have been largely used by those running satellite networks and radar systems.

WHAT'S THE 5G PICTURE IN INDIA
The DoT (Department of Telecom) is also expected to soon unveil a policy on use of higher band spectrum, including 5G airwaves. Experts believe that regulatory conditions around data hosting and cloud services will have to be realigned before introducing a data-heavy wireless technology such as 5G in India.

COULD 5G BE A REALITY BY 2020?
Telecom firms have talked about foreign collaboration on 5G but none has acquired the high efficient 700Mhz 4G spectrum. Upgrade to backhaul is seen as a major challenge. Events are moving fast forward. With an Indian 5G patent, domestic manufacturers can save huge sums on royalties and 5G smartphones will get boosted by lower prices. BharatNet fibre connectivity to towers should quickly address the infra deficit. And telecom firms—despite being debt-constrained—are keen on both 700Mhz and 3400-3600Mhz. Govt may facilitate long-term, innovative financing. Indian research in 5G technologies

4G SURFING
LTE availability is high in India, but speeds are very poor. Telcos are adding 4G at such furious pace that high numbers of subscribers, in 100s of millions, have crimped the speeds. So much so that 4G speeds in India are now only marginally faster than the global 3G average. Besides buying 700Mhz, which no telco has bid for, telcos like Airtel are experimenting with LTE-A (advanced) or combination of 2300MHz and 1800MHz bands.

Indian 4G speeds are very low at 1.5 to 4 Mbps as against 100 Mbps

Reliance Jio 5G
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5G Mobile SIM Internet is already available in many developed countries in the world. Reliance Jio is planning to introduce it in India with a bang, in late 2017. Jio's Plan details are too early to call. Update: Airtel will launch 5G in mid-2018. It's expected to cost Rs 40/GB, with similar benefits to Jio 5G. Jio is collaborating with Samsung and Airtel with Nokia. In speedtest.net, average download speed has clocked over 2500Mbps (2.5 GB Per Second), upload speed was over 300 Mbps and ping was just 4s. Compared to 4G:
Plan Tariff 10 X higher
Speeds 15 X faster

What's special about 5G
For discerning users, the difference from 4G is much more than scaled-up peak bit rate: its higher number of simultaneously-connected devices, higher system-spectral efficiency (data volume per area unit), lower battery consumption, lower outage probability (better coverage).

Few more differences are high bit rates in larger portions of the coverage area, lower latencies, a higher number of supported devices, lower infrastructure deployment costs, higher versatility and scalability or higher reliability of communications.

Where are we at?
5G standards and protocols are still under debate. They are not finalized yet. Once standards are defined then we will understand whether 5G can be implemented using existing telecom infrastructure like using current BTS (mobile towers) or we need to upgrade technology. Although 5G standards are still under debate minimum bandwidth (download speed) could be around 1Gb/sec.

Jio 5G Launch Date in India (Unlimited Data Plans Mobile SIM)

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