India’s government will push Apple, Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers to speed up rolling out software upgrades to support 5G in the country, Reuters news report said.
Reliance Jio’s 5G service is available in four cities. Bharti Airtel’s 5G service is available in eight cities. Jio and Airtel will expand 5G network to more cities next year.
Apple’s iPhone models, including the latest iPhone 14, and many of Samsung’s premier phones do not have software compatible for supporting 5G in India, according to industry sources and Airtel India’s website.
Top bureaucrats from India’s telecoms and IT departments will chair a meeting on Wednesday for early 5G adoption, asking smartphone executives from foreign companies Apple, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi, as well as domestic telecom operators Reliance, Airtel and Vodafone Idea to be present, according to a government document.
In August, Jio, India’s biggest mobile carrier with more than 420 million customers, snapped up airwaves worth $11 billion in a $19 billion 5G spectrum auction. Airtel spent more than $5 billion, while Vodafone doled out above $2 billion.
Airtel India’s website on Tuesday showed “Apple yet to update software” for all of Apple iPhones’ 12 to 14 models under its 5G compatible section. Many smartphone models from Samsung were not ready for 5G, Airtel stated. More than three dozen models of China’s Xiaomi and Vivo were shown as ready for use with its 5G service.
Apple has been taking a lot of time. Airtel has been concerned about this because many of their premium clients are on Apple devices. Apple is in the process of testing and validating different 5G offerings from network providers in India.
