Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday (7 December) infromed that the 5G services, which were launched in October, have been rolled out in 50 cities and towns across the country.

Two major telecom services providers in India - Reliance Jio and Airtel - have started the progressive roll out of the 5G sercvices in the country in October.

Jio's 5G service is available in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Varanasi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Nathdwara. The company recently launched 5G services in all 33 district headquarters of Gujarat. 

Airtel also have started 5G roll out in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, Varanasi, Panipat, Gurugram, Guwahati and Patna.

"Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have started providing 5G services in the country from 1 October onwards and as of 26 November, 5G services have started in 50 towns," Vaishnaw said in a written reply to a query in the Lok Sabha.

The minister added that the Department of Telecom (DoT) has specified rollout obligations in the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) for auction of access spectrum.

He said that the TSPs have reported that they are presently providing 5G services to their subscribers with 5G enabled devices at no extra cost.

The government had put 72,098 MHz of spectrum (technology neutral) to auction, of which 51,236.2 MHz ( around 71 per cent of the total) was allocated to the TSPs with bid amounting to Rs 1,50,173.29 crore, the minister said. 

As per the NIA for auction of access spectrum and license conditions, the minimum rollout obligations are required to be met over a period of five years in a phased manner from the date of allocation of spectrum, he said.

Further expansion of mobile network beyond the mandatory rollout obligations, depends upon the techno-commercial considerations of the TSPs, he added.