Bill Gates applauds India’s digital network, says it will be the cheapest 5G market

By Divyanshi Sharma5G services were officially launched in India in October 2022. Fast-forward to March 2023, many users have already shifted to 5G services and the same is available in hundreds of cities across the nation. India’s digital network was recently applauded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. While speaking at a session held in New Delhi under India’s G20 Presidency, Gates heaped praises on India’s digital network and said that India will be the ‘cheapest 5G market in the future’.

Bill Gates praises India’s digital network

While speaking at the event, Bill Gates said, “One thing that India has that is pretty fantastic is you have a great digital network, you have a very high percentage of people using smartphones. You have opened transactions also with feature phones.”

Talking about the 5G connectivity in India, Gates added, “The connectivity has been very good, it is very reliable, it is the cheapest in the world. And the same thing is going to happen in 5G. There is no doubt this will be the cheapest 5G market.”

Gates also said that India has ‘laid the groundwork’ for digital public infrastructure. He said, “India in particular, by laying the groundwork for digital public infrastructure starting with identity system, allows people to build on top of that. And to make financial access and financial payment an element of that in a trusted way allows for an incredible variety of applications. We are just at the beginning of this. We are seeing incredible ingenuity about using this, and it is in many different sectors,”

Airtel and Jio 5G services in India

Jio 5G services are available in more than 200 cities in India. A couple of days back, the company added a few more cities to its list of cities where 5G services are available. Jio had announced that its 5G services are available in Assam’s Bongaigaon, North Lakhimpur, and Sivasagar, Tinsukia. It also rolled out to Bihar’s Bhagalpur and Katihar, Goa’s Mormugao, (Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu’s Diu, and Gujarat’s Gandhidham. Apart from that, Jio is rolling out 5G in Karnataka’s Raichur, Madhya Pradesh’s Satna, Maharashtra’s Chandrapur and Ichalkaranji, and Manipur’s Thoubal. Jio users in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad, Firozabad, and Muzaffarnagar can also enjoy 5G.

As of now, Jio’s 5G services are free to use in India. All the users need to do is to ensure that they are using a 5G-compatible smartphone and have the MyJio app installed. Users can get access to 5G services by signing up for a “welcome offer”.

Airtel is also allowing users to test their 5G services. Users need to simply enable 5G via their phone settings.