Amid worries that many of their models aren’t prepared for the recently launched high-speed service, India’s government will pressure Apple, Samsung, and other mobile phone manufacturers to prioritise releasing software upgrades to support 5G in the nation.
With great fanfare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi debuted 5G services on October 1. Leading telecom provider Reliance Jio announced that it would offer the service in four cities and rival Bharti Airtel in eight. Both businesses declared that the service would be increased in 2019.
However, according to three industry sources and the website of Airtel, Apple’s iPhone models, including the most recent iPhone 14, and many of Samsung’s top smartphones, do not have software compatible for supporting 5G in India.
Top bureaucrats from India’s telecoms and IT departments are worried about this and will preside over a meeting on Wednesday for early 5G adoption. They have invited smartphone executives from international companies Apple, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi as well as domestic telecom operators Reliance, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea to attend.
The notice for the closed-door meeting stated that the agenda included holding discussions “to prioritise” and releasing software upgrades for supporting the high-speed network.
Requests for comment from Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics, Vivo, Xiaomi Corp., and the three domestic telecom operators did not immediately elicit a response. Both the telecom and IT departments of the government remained silent.
According to India, the rollout of 5G in the second-largest mobile market in the world (after China) will provide consumers with high-speed internet while also having positive socioeconomic effects on industries like agriculture and health.
In a $19 billion 5G spectrum auction in August, Jio, the largest mobile carrier in India with over 420 million subscribers, purchased airwaves worth $11 billion. While Vodafone gave away more than $2 billion, Airtel spent more than $5 billion.
While there have been discussions between telecom players and smartphone manufacturers, one of the sources in the industry claimed that it is taking time to resolve compatibility problems between the unique 5G technology used by Indian telecom companies and phone software.
On Tuesday, the 5G compatible section of Airtel’s website stated for all 12 to 14 models of Apple iPhones that “Apple yet to update software.” According to Airtel, many Samsung models were also not ready, but more than 30 Xiaomi and Vivo models from China were listed as being compatible with the company’s 5G service.
According to a third source with firsthand knowledge of the situation, Apple is currently evaluating various 5G offerings from Indian network providers.
Users are already irritated by the lack of 5G software upgrades.
