With the deadline to roll out 5G technology in India nears, top telecom major Airtel has announced to successfully conduct the country’s first cloud-gaming session in a 5G environment. The demonstration was conducted in Manesar (Gurugram) as part of the ongoing 5G trials using the spectrum allotted by the Department of Telecom.
“Cloud gaming will be one of the biggest use cases of 5G thanks to the combination of high speed and low latency. After delivering India’s first 5G demo over a test network, we are thrilled to conduct this exciting 5G gaming session. Imagine enjoying real-time gaming on the go with someone sitting in another part of the world. This is just the beginning of an exciting digital future that Airtel will enable for its customers as we prepare to roll out 5G in India,” Bharti Airtel CTO Randeep Sekhon said in a statement.
For the 5G cloud gaming demonstration, Airtel has partnered with two of India’s leading gamers – Mortal (Naman Mathur), and Mamba (Salman Ahmad). Cloud gaming allows users to stream and play games in real-time without having to download these or invest in gaming hardware. With the advent of 5G networks, cloud gaming is expected to become the new normal as users will be able to enjoy a high-end console-like gaming experience on smartphones and tablets while on the move.
According to German market and consumer data company, Statista, India with its vast youth population, growing smartphone penetration and 5G networks will see mobile gaming evolve into a $2.4 billion market opportunity. India’s base of 436 million online gamers is expected to reach 510 million by 2022.
Earlier this year, Airtel successfully demonstrated 5G services over a Live 4G network in Hyderabad, marking an industry first. It is also conducting 5G trials in multiple cities across India and validating technologies and use cases through the trial spectrum allotted by the Department of Telecom. Airtel has partnered with Ericsson and Nokia for these trials.
