On 04.04.2022, senior officials of Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Gujarat LSA Smt. Gunjan Dave Sr. DDG, Shri Sumit Mishra and Shri Vikas Dadhich Director, with the technical team of Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) and Nokia, visited the Mahatma Mandir 5G trial site of VIL in Gandhinagar, where technical testing of 5G is being carried out by a team of Gujarat LSA comprising of Shri Ankit Sharma and Shri Suryash Gautam ADG.

The testing is being in accordance with the schedule and procedure of the Telecom Engineering Center (TEC). TEC is the technical arm of DoT, which frames the specification of common standards with regard to Telecom network equipment and services. This test Schedule and test procedure aims at uniform assessment of the various use cases in 5G, which are being trialed by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) under DOT, through the measurement of comprehensive parameters related to performance and interoperability.

Recently, Hon’ble Minister of Communications Shri Devusinh Chauhan in replying to a supplementary question during question hour in the Rajya Sabha on 25.03.2022 had informed that “Spectrum auctions for 5G will be conducted very soon, and the next generation 5G services are expected to commence before the end of the year. The four companies have been allotted spectrum for conducting trials and added that the trials are expected to be completed soon.”

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on 27.05.2021, for 5G testing in Gujarat, allotted license and spectrum to :

1. Vodafone Idea Limited in Gandhinagar (for urban), Mansa (for semi urban) and Unava, (rural) with Nokia as equipment supplier.
2. Reliance Jio Infocomm in Jamnagar (semi urban / rural) with Samsung as equipment supplier.

The spectrum was initially allotted for six months which had been extended for further six months.

In the recent past on 11.11.2021, the DoT Gujarat LSA team had inspected and observed the peak data download speed of 4 Gbps at the Mahatma Mandir VIL 5G test site of Gandhinagar. On 22.12.2021, a 5G innovative solution, which was first of its kind to be tested by DoT in India for the rural broadband coverage, comprised of the 5G BTS installed at the Unava town of Mansa taluka in Gandhinagar district and the 5G outdoor customer premise equipment (CPE) in the Ajol village of Mansa taluka in Gandhinagar district. The aerial distance between the two locations was 17 KM and the peak data download speed of more than 105 Mbps was observed.

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