The roll-out of 5G in India began in October 2022, and millions of people will soon enjoy a quick and responsive streaming, gaming, and working experience on their devices. However, there are some significant issues that need to be resolved.
According to industry experts, consumers who live close to airports are unlikely to have 5G on their devices. And there are millions of them. The new regulation will be in effect up until the DGCA ensures that all aircraft Radio Altimeters filters have been replaced.
Pilots in the US also reported frequent issues with the aircraft’s radio (radar) altimeters as high-speed 5G wireless networks roll out across the globe. High-speed 5G wireless networks which use similar C-band frequencies were introduced earlier this year. According to an analysis of reports made to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) by IEEE Spectrum (the world’s top engineering magazine), complaints of broken and malfunctioning altimeters increased after that.
Global chip manufacturer Qualcomm has increased its efforts with Reliance Jio to help it quickly connect 100 million homes through its 5G fixed wireless access, including the millimetre wave (mmWave) with the initial roll-out of 5G in India. To provide its chipset platforms for the Open RAN 5G network and the 5G fixed wireless access, Qualcomm is collaborating closely with Reliance Jio.
Neil Shah, Vice President of Research, Counterpoint Research, said leading operators Jio and Airtel have tremendous scale and strong foundation to build upon existing 4G network coverage.
“Jio, especially, taking a 5G Stand Alone (SA) deployment approach where the 5G network is almost architecturally independent of the 4G network makes it easier for Jio to deploy pan-India 5G network swiftly to kickstart 5G services at scale,” said Shah.
Airtel though has to rollout 5G network along with its 4G, 2G networks, is also leapfrogging with 5G deployments for both consumer as well as enterprise use-cases and will fast-follow Jio in terms of coverage at pan India level by end of 2023, Shah added.