Airtel 5G Plus available in 8 cities from Thursday

Bharti Airtel confirmed that its customers in eight cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, and Varanasi—can avail Airtel 5G Plus services from Thursday.

The announcement comes after Reliance Jio said it would start the beta trial of 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi from Wednesday.

Airtel customers can access 5G services on their existing data plans. They would not need to avail another simcard as the existing Airtel 4G SIM is 5G enabled, the company said in a statement.

Airtel promises to offer "massive speeds, best voice experience" with the launch of 5G services. The 5G services will offer between 20 to 30 times higher speeds and have "brilliant voice experience and super-fast call connect," the company said.

"Our obsession on customer experience is now embellished with a 5G solution that is kinder to the environment. Airtel 5G Plus is all set to redefine the way people communicate, live, work, connect and play for years to come.” Airtel managing director & CEO Gopal Vittal said.

Airtel had placed the order for 5G gears with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung immediately after the auctions were over. The company had acquired spectrum worth Rs 43,084 crore in the just-concluded auction.

According to the telecom department, 5G technology is expected to deliver ten times better download speed than that of 4G and up to three times greater spectrum efficiency.