Vodafone trials use of street furniture for 5G in Bhopal Smart City

26 Aug 2022

Indian telecom operator Vodafone Idea is currently conducting a trial on the use of street furniture for small cells and aerial fiber deployment in Bhopal Smart City, as part of a pilot by India’s telecom regulator TRAI.In a release, the carrier said that these pilots are aimed at making cross-sectoral infrastructure more accessible for the quick roll-out of the 5G networks. Street furniture such as traffic signal poles, street light poles, smart poles, road signages and bus shelters are being used for testing 5G small cells.TRAI has selected Vodafone Idea to conduct trials at Bhopal Smart City as the main smart city location in the country. The learnings of this project will be used for 5G deployment in other smart cities in the country. In this pilot, Vodafone Idea has demonstrated 5G download speed of 1 Gbps on a mobile handset at four locations across Bhopal Smart City.“TRAI has been testing 5G readiness using small cell and aerial fiber in different locations across the country. Vodafone Idea is also conducting trials on use of street furniture for small cells and aerial fiber deployment at Bengaluru Metro Rail, New Delhi International Airport, Deendayal Port – Kandla in Gujarat. The company has demonstrated a range of 5G-based technology solutions and use cases as part of its 5G trials on government allocated trial spectrum in Pune, Maharashtra and Gandhinagar, Gujarat,” the carrier said.In the recent 5G spectrum auction carried out by the Indian government, Vodafone Idea has acquired spectrum in the 3,300MHz and 26GHz bands for the provision of residential and enterprise 5G services. The telco also secured additional 4G spectrum in the auction to boost its 4G offering across India.“We actively participated in the spectrum auction to strengthen our pan-India 4G footprint and embark on our 5G roll-out journey in the country in line with our long-term vision. We have successfully acquired mid-band 5G spectrum in our 17 priority circles and mmWave 5G spectrum in 16 circles,” Vodafone Idea said in a statement.