Bhubaneswar: Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will inaugurate much-awaited 5G telecom network services in Odisha during a programme at SOA Campus-2, Bhubaneswar, on Thursday.
According to sources, 510 base transceiver stations (BTS) towers have already been installed across the state by telecom operators Reliance Jio and Airtel. The service will be available in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, and a few other places in the state.
The programme in Bhubaneswar will also include the announcement of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)- funded projects, Spectrum enablement for Research and Development (R&D), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) projects.
Telecom companies are likely to cover the big cities with the 5G initially before extending the service to rural areas. Vaishnaw will inaugurate 100 telecom towers in Odisha’s rural areas along with 5G services, a PIB release said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the 5G service, which began on a trial basis in October 2022, has been launched in selected cities including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Delhi, and Mumbai in the initial phase.
Besides, President Droupadi Murmu’s village Pahadpur under Kusumi block in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha has also experienced the new generation telecom network.
Vaishnaw had informed that 5G services will be launched in Odisha before January 26 at the foundation stone laying ceremony for the redevelopment of Bhubaneswar Railway Station.
5G has the potential to be up to 10 times faster than 4G. A file that takes 56 hours to download on a 2G network, two hours on a 3G network, and 40 minutes on a 4G network will take only 35 seconds on a 5G network, according to experts.
