Bharti Airtel said it has already launched 5G in more than 30 cities across the country

Indian operator Bharti Airtel has launched 5G services in five cities in Uttar Pradesh state, the company said in a release.

Bharti Airtel said its 5G offering has been launched in Agra, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Kanpur and Prayagraj. Airtel’s 5G services are already live in Lucknow and Varanasi.

Uttar Pradesh is the most populous and fourth largest state of India. The state is located in the north-central part of the country.

Airtel noted that its 5G Plus services will be available to customers in a phased manner as the company continues to construct its network across the country. The telco has already launched 5G in more than 30 cities across the country.

In October 2022, Bharti Airtel launched 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi.

The carrier aims to launch 5G in the city of Kolkata in the near future, according to local press reports.

Airtel’s 5G offering has been deployed in a number of airports, including the Kempegowda International airport of Bengaluru, Lohegaon airport in Pune, Lal Bahadur Shastri International airport in Varanasi, Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur and Patna airport.

Bharti Airtel founder and chairman Sunil Mittal said that most parts of the country will be covered by 5G by March 2023.

The Indian operator is currently using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 5G services. The Indian operator had secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a recent auction carried out by the Indian government.

Rival operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has already launched 5G in 100 cities across India.

Some of the cities where the telco already offers 5G include Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Kolkata, Nathdwara, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Pune, Tirumala, Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam, Guntur, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Mysuru, Nashik, Aurangabad, Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Zirakpur, Kharar, Derabassi, Bhopal, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ludhiana, Siliguri, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur.

Since Jio is offering the 5G connectivity on an invitational basis, users living in 5G enabled cities with 5G compatible smartphones will get the invite.

Reliance Jio Infocomm had initially announced the launch of the beta trial of its 5G services in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Varanasi in October 2022.

Reliance Jio Infocomm had inked contracts with Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia for the deployment of 5G networks.

Reliance Jio had previously secured a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G across 700MHz, 3.5GHz, and 26 GHz bands. Jio is the only operator with the 700 MHz low-band spectrum.

Jio, which is offering 5G services via Standalone (SA) architecture, has announced plans to reach nationwide coverage with 5G by December 2023.

Indian operators Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel have deployed nearly 33,000 base stations for 5G services as of the end of the year, according to recent press reports.

Indian state-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) could launch 5G services by August of next year, according to recent press reports.

Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea did not yet launch 5G services and is still in talks with a number of vendors.