5G India Roadmap: Jio 5G in India launch date, bands, speed, cities, plans, and more

The spectrum has been licensed to telecom operators after the 2022 5G auctions, and we are now waiting for the launch of Jio 5G in India. Recently at the 5G spectrum auction, Reliance Jio becomes the top bidder in India by winning a 5G auction and has been making a quiet discussion among the carriers for a pan-Indian 5G launch in 2022.

Jio has a unique position in the market due to its acquisition of the most 5G spectrum, production of a custom 5G network stack, and potential support for the 5Gi standard developed in India.

So, let’s get started with all questions about the 5G roadmap in India.

Here is All You Need to Know About Jio 5G in India

We’ll cover all we know about Reliance Jio’s 5G in India in this article, from the launch date to the supported 5G bands.

Jio 5G Bands in India

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in India auctioned out 24.7GHz of the spectrum, which Jio purchased for Rs.88,078 crores. Jio becomes the top bidder since it has the most spectrum across all of India (26.77GHz).

All of the popular frequency bands, including the premium mmWave 26GHz (n258) band and the 700MHz (n28), 800MHz (n5), 1800MHz (n3), and 3300MHz (n78) bands, have been purchased by Reliance Jio.

Since it will enable Jio to reach rural areas of India and provide affordable 5G services to the general public, the 700MHz frequency is the most looked at the band in this condition.

Even though this lower band may not offer the fastest internet speeds, it may travel great distances and offers faster download rates than 4G/LTE to all of India.

Jio has made it clear that it will offer 5G services all over India, reaching every last corner of the country, in the low-band 5G spectrum, commonly known as sub-GHz. It purchased some sub-GHz bands at 800 MHz in four circles and the 700 MHz band across all 22 of India’s circles.

Jio purchased at least 2 x 10MHz in the 1800MHz spectrum in six significant circles in the mid-band sub-6GHz frequency band. In addition, the company chose to grant 100MHz in the 3300MHz band to each of the 22 circles, potentially making Jio India’s largest 5G telecom provider.

Regarding the mmWave 5G bands, Jio successfully acquired 1000MHz in the 26GHz frequency band, once more in each of the 22 circles, which is truly impressive. The table below contains a complete list of Jio’s 5G band deployments.

Jio 5G Launch Date

Although Akash Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Jio, recently stated that the company will mark “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” with a 5G rollout across India, Reliance Jio has not yet officially declared the launch date of its 5G service. Reliance Jio will probably introduce its 5G services on August 15, 2022, India’s 76th Independence Day, if the rumor hype is to be considered.

Having said that, this news might refer to a test run in a few metropolises or other areas of India. Jio’s 5G services will take a month or two to fully roll out in important Indian cities. Then, early in the next year, a phased rollout in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities might be expected.

Jio 5G Supported Cities in India

As above mentioned, Jio has purchased 5G bands for all 22 circles, therefore Jio 5G will be available throughout all of India. The company’s 5G services, however, would reportedly launch in 9 cities at first, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Jamnagar.

Update Aug. 24, 2022: New cities include: Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, and Pune.

In addition, Jio has finished planning for 5G coverage in more than 1000 cities, indicating that a pan-India rollout is about to come.

Jio used heat maps, 3D maps, and ray tracing technology for coverage design based on targeted user consumption and income potential. Additionally, it has tested a number of 5G use cases, including telemedicine, low-latency cloud gaming, virtual and augmented reality, and online live TV broadcasting.

Do You Need a New Jio 5G SIM?

The 5G network can only be accessed with a new 5G SIM, according to the Indian telecom providers. Therefore, if you already have a Jio 4G SIM, using Jio’s 5G service should be possible without any issues or SIM upgrade solutions.

Jio 5G Download/Upload Speeds

Jio has so far tested 5G in 8 locations and recorded varying levels of 5G speed. According to a recent 91Mobiles report, Jio’s 5G experiment in Mumbai provided download rates that were up to 8 times higher than those of 4G. It appears that Jio 5G will offer download rates of up to 420 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 412 Mbps, which is a great improvement over India’s 4G speeds.

Although we don’t know if the test was done in the mmWave or sub-6GHz spectrum, Jio’s 5G speeds are undoubtedly impressive. So, keep an eye out for the results of additional tests to see how Jio’s 5G network works in real-world usage.

It’s interesting to note that Jio created its own 5G network stack using Radisys’ Open-RAN technology and hardware from various manufacturers. If the network infrastructure operates on par with other fully-stacked 5G systems, Jio will benefit.

Jio 5G Plans/Pricing in India

Whatever Jio’s 5G plans and prices will be in India are still unknown at this time. Reliance Jio’s competitive strategies are well known to us, thus we expect its 5G package will cost between Rs.400 and Rs.500 per month. Jio’s ARPU (average revenue per user) is currently close to Rs.175 at this time.

In the upcoming years, Jio will be able to significantly raise its ARPU thanks to 5G services. But be aware that Jio might roll out a two-tier 5G strategy for services using sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrum.