Govt to define quality norms to ensure better 5G service – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The government is concerned over the quality of services being offered through the new age — and fledgling — 5G mobile telephony, and is planning to issue standards that guarantee optimum consumer experience.
The plan, which is being worked out by Trai, comes at a time when the regulator has expressed dissatisfaction over the current state of service quality of 2G and 4G networks, where call drops and poor network speeds have marred user experience. Sources said that Trai is set to define quality of service (QoS) norms for 5G, looking at aspects such as network speed, latency, and consumer experience.

The move has the backing of the department of telecom (DoT), which has also written to Trai about the issue of poor quality of networks after fin ding services unsatisfactory.
The government is being vigilant about the 5G technology rollout that promises ground­breaking consumer experience with minimum network speeds pegged at over 100 MBPS, and capacity to handle new age experiences such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) as well as immersive, interactive gaming.
We are keenly watching the rollout of 5G and what the companies are delivering to their customers against what is being promised to them,” one of the sources said, adding that telecom companies have already been questioned on the matter.
“Both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have said the 5G network may be patchy in certain cases as it is still in the rollout phase, and more coordination is required for seamlessly merging it with current technologies. While Airtel is setting up 5G network in conjunction with its existing 4G infra setup, Jio is erecting a standalone architecture which has zero dependency on 4G deployment,” the source said.
Jio has the largest deployment so far as it has set up the 5G network in 406 cities, with over 50,000 towers and three lakh cell sites catering to 5G. The company is yet to announce its 5G subscriber base. Airtel has reached more than 270 cities with the network, and had on February 27 reported a user base of 10 million. The latter has said that it will cover “every town and key rural areas” with 5G by March 2024.
Vodafone Idea, the third biggest private operator, is, however, yet to begin its deployment of 5G.