Bengaluru: The Silicon City will be the first Indian city soon to stride into next-generation mobile 5G technology of Airtel, nation’s largest telecom operator.

Airtel has chosen Bengaluru to deploy its Massive-Input Multiple Output (massive MIMO) technology, a key enabler of 5G networks.

Bengalureans will soon experience mobile data speeds double faster than the existing 4G in few months. Airtel has also chosen Kolkata for deploying this technology in the first phase.

According to reports, to begin with, Airtel is expected to offer speeds only two to three times faster than 4G, although 5G is capable of much higher speeds of 500 Mbps going up to 1 Gbps. As of now, 4G networks offer speeds of upto 16 Mbps. Airtel’s 5G is expected to hover around 40-45 Mbps. Massive MIMO, that enhances spectrum efficiency by five to seven times, has already been tested in the country.