What exactly is 5G? How is it different from 4G?

On one hand, the telecom industry is focusing on providing 4G services in the country, but on the other hand, telcos like Airtel and BSNL are gearing up for 5G as both operators have recently announced their partnership with Nokia.

"We will leverage our global experience in 5G-related industry projects and collaborations to enable BSNL to evolve their networks for the programmable world," Sanjay Malik, head of India Market, Nokia, said earlier in a statement.

Anupam Shrivastava, CMD of BSNL also said, "this joint initiative will go a long way to help us meet the future data demands in a most cost-effective way."

Nokia will help Airtel and BSNL develop 5G network in India

The new entrant Reliance Jio has also recently partnered with Samsung to bring 5G connectivity in India.

"The massive deployment of over a million cells across India is especially remarkable. We will strive to create new paradigms for LTE-Advanced Pro and 5G by closely cooperating with Jio as a unified workforce," Youngky Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics said at that time.

Former Telecom Secretary, JS Deepak also said that "We were late in 3G and 4G and we are very keen that India should not be deprived of 5G. It is not only a communication issue but also a productivity issue for the industry. It has wider applications in smart cities and grids and all kinds of things."

In a recent past, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has officially unveiled a new logo for 5G network. The new logo is quite familiar with 4G. However, the waves are now green instead of red.

Now the question is obvious, what is 5G?, how it is different from 4G?, when is it going to launch in India?

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What exactly is 5G?

5G is the next-generation of mobile networks which will offer high internet speed as compared to current 4G LTE and can deliver up to 1Gbps of download speed.

"5G is the next step in the evolution of the mobile technology and network architecture, industry experts told GizBot. Adding that, "5G will play a key role in providing many features like an HD voice, 2K/4K Video, and virtual reality experience anytime."

Experts said that on which band it will be launched is yet to be finalized. But we can say it will run on ultra-high spectrum bands.

How is it different from 4G?

The main quality of 5G networks compared to 4G will be speed. It's going to be many times quicker than what we have now. 5G will make communications so fast that they will become almost real-time, and unlike its 4G, 5G network will offer the ability to handle a plethora of connected devices.

When is it going to launch in India?

5G is expected to launch in developed countries by 2020 and by 2022 in India. While the penetration of 4G in the Indian market has been tepid, there is much skepticism towards the adoption of 5G in India.