who will get it first? Jio will launch in the Metro cities first in October. At the same time, apparently, Airtel will launch on 11th or 12th October. But it’s obviously going to be a phase-wise roll-out. Which means that in the next 12-15 months till December 2023, there’ll be a pan-India coverage of Jio 5G, Airtel 5G, and most probably, Vi 5G. But the most important thing you should know is, how is this going to proceed? 5G has two basic networks, Non-Standalone and Standalone. Non-Standalone is the one which will work on top of the existing infrastructure of the 4G network. Standalone means that the whole infrastructure will be newly built. So, Jio announced that their network will be standalone. Which means this is going to be true 5G. Now, we don’t know about the Vi and Airtel network, but they are not going to go standalone, it’ll be NSA (Non-Standalone) with the existing infrastructure. Second thing, know this, when the spectrum auction happened, many people bought various GHz such as 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz. These are the ones they bought. The lowest one is 700MHz which Jio bought. Now, let me tell you guys about frequency in a few lines. 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, then 2100MHz, and 2600MHz among the top. The lower ones, like 700MHz and 800MHz, give the most coverage. So, the more coverage, the less is speed. Whereas, if you take the higher bands, like 2100MHz, 2800MHz, 2.1GHz, 2.6GHz, then you will get faster speed but not bigger coverage. So, 700MHz will give you coverage and 2100MHz will give you speed. This was frequency. Now, how are bands and frequency related? There are different types of bands, like n28, n5, n77, n78. So, they represent different frequencies. The chart is displayed on the screen. How many different bands should be there? There are about 12-13 bands. The 3 telecom operators we talked about, have bought frequency between these 12-13 bands. And these bands are on your smartphones. That’s why we say that there should be 12-13 bands. Now, if there is a standalone network, like Jio announced, which is very good and they’ll have to invest money. In fact, I think they said this in their AGM that they are investing Rs.2 Lakh Cr. on 5G. That’s a big amount! Huge amount of money! But because of that we’ll get network coverage as well as speed. But by being a standalone, will we be able to use the same 4G Sim for the 5G? I’m 90% sure that you’ll have to change the Sim card to 5G. Number will be the same but not the Sim card. Another thing, when they’ll roll out, the lower spectrum and frequency will roll out first and then the higher frequencies will come into picture. Why? Because we need coverage, it’ll be very important. The speed will be less of 700MHz and 800Mhz.
So, if you ask me what’ll be the difference between 4G and 5G? It might not be 10x more or 2x more. So, if you are getting 30- 40MBps now, then will you get 1GBps, generally in test conditions? No. It’ll not be that. It might be, you know, 15-20% to 50% more. If you are getting 30-40MBps speed then you’ll get 50-60MBps or 40-50MBps, especially with the lower frequencies. Higher frequencies will obviously get more speed. Again I’m saying, if you buy 5G, you will NOT get 1GBps speed. With speed comes the talk of price. What’ll be the price? According to Airtel and Jio, they’ll be affordable but not the same as 4G. It’ll be a little more than the base recharge of 4G such as Rs.250 & Rs.200. If you take a plan of 1.5GB/day for 5G, it might be about Rs.250-300. What is Rs.150-200 for 4G, will become Rs.250-300 So, about 30-40%. Take that with a pinch of salt. That’s what I’m expecting from what I read and saw. And if Jio is in this price range then Airtel & Vi will be around the same or a little higher. So, expect to pay a little 30-40% more for 5G. One thing I said about Sim cards that separate 5G Jio Sim will be required, I’m 90% sure. But for Airtel and Idea that might not happen because they will use their existing 4G infrastructure. You will be able to use the same SIM card for 5G. But I’ll tell you what. At the start, in the first 6-7 months, it’ll be 4G++. On the top, it’ll be indicated as 5G, but the speed will be 4G++. I’ll not call it ‘True 5G’ because it’s not standalone. They are using existing 4G infrastructure. So, remember that. Like I said before, if you are living in metro cities, then you’ll get it first. Then slowly Tier 1 cities, Tier 2 cities, Tier 3 cities, etc., will get the roll out. So, it’ll take time but in the next 1 year, definitely if your phone is 5G. Another thing, should you buy a 5G phone now, or not? In fact, I think brands should not launch 4G phones anymore. As you can see 5G will come in 2 months. Now, don’t buy 4G phones. If you’re going to buy, buy a 5G phone. 5G has come, that doesn’t mean that 4G will stop working anymore. The existing infrastructure of 4G will remain. Even Jio has clarified that you can buy 5G as well as 4G. There will be separate plans. Let me tell you more, plans may depend on the speeds. Like for 700MHz where coverage is better than speed, the cost may be upto Rs.300 for 1.5GB/day plan. But for 2100-2600MHz, where the speed is more, the cost might be a little more. Even in 5G, there’ll be different plans. which will work on top of the existing infrastructure of the 4G network. Standalone means that the whole infrastructure will be newly built. So, Jio announced that their network will be standalone. Which means this is going to be true 5G. Now, we don’t know about the Vi and Airtel network, but they are not going to go standalone, it’ll be NSA (Non-Standalone) with the existing infrastructure. Second thing, know this, when the spectrum auction happened, many people bought various GHz such as 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz. These are the ones they bought. The lowest one is 700MHz which Jio bought. Now, let me tell you guys about frequency in a few lines. 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, then 2100MHz, and 2600MHz among the top. The lower ones, like 700MHz and 800MHz, give the most coverage. So, the more coverage, the less is speed. Whereas, if you take the higher bands, like 2100MHz, 2800MHz, 2.1GHz, 2.6GHz, then you will get faster speed but not bigger coverage. So, 700MHz will give you coverage and 2100MHz will give you speed. This was frequency. Now, how are bands and frequency related? There are different types of bands, like n28, n5, n77, n78. So, they represent different frequencies. The chart is displayed on the screen. How many different bands should be there? There are about 12-13 bands. The 3 telecom operators we talked about, have bought frequency between these 12-13 bands. And these bands are on your smartphones. That’s why we say that there should be 12-13 bands. Now, if there is a standalone network, like Jio announced, which is very good and they’ll have to invest money. In fact, I think they said this in their AGM that they are investing Rs.2 Lakh Cr. on 5G. That’s a big amount! Huge amount of money! But because of that we’ll get network coverage as well as speed. But by being a standalone, will we be able to use the same 4G Sim for the 5G? I’m 90% sure that you’ll have to change the Sim card to 5G. Number will be the same but not the Sim card. Another thing, when they’ll roll out, the lower spectrum and frequency will roll out first and then the higher frequencies will come into picture. Why? Because we need coverage, it’ll be very important. The speed will be less of 700MHz and 800Mhz. So, if you ask me what’ll be the difference between 4G and 5G? It might not be 10x more or 2x more. So, if you are getting 30- 40MBps now, then will you get 1GBps, generally in test conditions? No. It’ll not be that. It might be, you know, 15-20% to 50% more. If you are getting 30-40MBps speed then you’ll get 50-60MBps or 40-50MBps, especially with the lower frequencies. Higher frequencies will obviously get more speed. Again I’m saying, if you buy 5G, you will NOT get 1GBps speed. With speed comes the talk of price. What’ll be the price? According to Airtel and Jio, they’ll be affordable but not the same as 4G. It’ll be a little more than the base recharge of 4G such as Rs.250 & Rs.200. If you take a plan of 1.5GB/day for 5G, it might be about Rs.250-300. What is Rs.150-200 for 4G, will become Rs.250-300 So, about 30-40%. Take that with a pinch of salt. That’s what I’m expecting from what I read and saw. And if Jio is in this price range then Airtel & Vi will be around the same or a little higher. So, expect to pay a little 30-40% more for 5G. One thing I said about Sim cards that separate 5G Jio Sim will be required, I’m 90% sure. But for Airtel and Idea that might not happen because they will use their existing 4G infrastructure. You will be able to use the same SIM card for 5G. But I’ll tell you what. At the start, in the first 6-7 months, it’ll be 4G++. On the top, it’ll be indicated as 5G, but the speed will be 4G++. I’ll not call it ‘True 5G’ because it’s not standalone. They are using existing 4G infrastructure. So, remember that. Like I said before, if you are living in metro cities, then you’ll get it first. Then slowly Tier 1 cities, Tier 2 cities, Tier 3 cities, etc., will get the roll out. So, it’ll take time but in the next 1 year, definitely if your phone is 5G. Another thing, should you buy a 5G phone now, or not? In fact, I think brands should not launch 4G phones anymore. As you can see 5G will come in 2 months. Now, don’t buy 4G phones. If you’re going to buy, buy a 5G phone. 5G has come, that doesn’t mean that 4G will stop working anymore. The existing infrastructure of 4G will remain. Even Jio has clarified that you can buy 5G as well as 4G. There will be separate plans. Let me tell you more, plans may depend on the speeds. Like for 700MHz where coverage is better than speed, the cost may be upto Rs.300 for 1.5GB/day plan. But for 2100-2600MHz, where the speed is more, the cost might be a little more. Even in 5G, there’ll be different plans.