Airtel has upgraded some of its sites to 5G mobile internet services.
The telcos market is quite competitive and this proven by the fact that in less than a few weeks after Safaricom launched its 5G network Airtel has also joined the game. Suddenly Airtel CEO P.D. Sarma announced that 600 of their sites would be upgraded to 5G.
Airtel made their first announcement in December 2020 and revealed that they would partner with Nokia to upgrade 600 sites but they didn’t state when it would happen.
Will it really ever be launched?
I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen any real campaign about the 5G launch from both Safaricom and Airtel, however its rather obvious that the two companies are more often than not in competition. Early last year rumor had it that Safaricom would launch their 5G network and when they finally launched in March 2021 they later cancelled their plans.
Safaricom allegedly has launched the 5G network in Nairobi and some parts of Western Kenya but it is still not available for the general public. Airtel has also argued that the majority of people are still unable to afford the 5G handsets even after claiming that they have launched their network across 600 sites. So in as much as the two companies are busy claiming that they’ve launched the 5G network, when will the public be able to use it.
Airtel CEO had said:
“The 5G handsets right now are obviously very costly and see few buys. We feel that a reasonable price will start coming in one and a half to two years. That is the time we feel we will be able to switch on our 5G network, But if things happen faster, we are ready for it,”
Would you switch to the 5G network if it was available?