Indian cellco Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) has activated its Standalone (SA) 5G network in 50 more cities across 17 states, bringing its total 5G footprint to 184 cities nationwide. The operator’s notes that customers within those cities will be invited to sign up to its ‘Jio Welcome Offer’ plan, which provides customers with compatible devices access to unlimited downloads over 5G at no additional cost.
Rival cellco Bharti Airtel, meanwhile, has announced that it has extended its 5G network to four more cities in Tamil Nadu – Coimbatore, Madurai, Hosur and Trichy – in addition to its existing coverage in Chennai. In addition to the launch of 5G in Odisha last week, Airtel now provides 5G coverage in around 40 cities.
Vodafone Idea (Vi), the smallest of India’s three privately-owned cellcos, has yet to begin deploying 5G infrastructure but announced that it has completed upgrades to its sites in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The operator has deployed 1800MHz spectrum on all of its 11,000 sites across the two states to provide improved LTE services. Vi notes that over the last year the company deployed 660 new sites, upgraded capacity at 6,201 sites and augmented its spectrum across all of its sites in the two states. Vi claims that the upgrades have doubled the download speeds experienced by customers. Siddhartha Jain, Vi’s Cluster Business Head for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana said of the upgrade: ‘We have undertaken multiple initiatives over the past year to widen our coverage as well as strengthen network capacity across the length and breadth of the two states … As we continue our endeavor towards 5G readiness, we remain committed to offer the best products and services enabling our customers to thrive in a digital world.’
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