India to commercially launch 5G services from Sept 2022: IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

A day after clearing the way for 5G spectrum auction, which is slated to be held by July end, the Union government has announced to roll out 5G services in the country by September later this year.

According to the union Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the country’s biggest spectrum auction, which will pave the way for high-speed 5G services, “is likely to conclude by July-end and the rollout is expected by September this year,” Vaishnaw said.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the 5G spectrum auction which is scheduled to begin from July 26. “The 5G spectrum auction process has started today. We should see the auction process completing by the end of July, which is what our scheduled target date was. Telecom companies are already working in parallel to set up the entire infrastructure,” Vaishnaw said.

The 5G services are expected to be rolled out by August-September. “Auction is on time. July was the timeframe for auction. August-September was the timeframe to begin rollout,” Vaishnaw added.

At present the Union minister is attending a technology event in Paris where he inaugurated the India pavilion which is hosting 65 startups from the country.