Airtel, Jio pick different 5G routes, prepare for next big tech battle

The Big Two telecom companies have accelerated their moves towards this next-gen technology, though they have chosen very different routes to getting there

The battle for 5G is suddenly hotting up. In an unexpected move last week, Bharti Airtel announced that it had become the first telco to demonstrate live non-standalone 5G service over its commercial network in Hyderabad, using existing spectrum in the 1,800 band. And on the same day communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad extolled the fact that the 5G core (the heart of the network) should be made in India and said his ministry would soon give the much delayed permission for trial runs of the technology.
 

The Airtel move comes just a few months after Reliance Jio quietly tested