We began this month with 5G debuting in the Indian market. And we are now getting news, that the Indian government is beginning a serious push for fast 5G adoption.
In India, the smartphone market is still dominated by affordable Chinese manufacturers, most of which run on their own custom Android versions. That has helped them roll out faster updates to their phones, including ones relevant for a 5G roll-out. The same however, can not be said for iPhones currently being sold by Apple in India. That issue, could soon be ironed out as Apple and telecom major Airtel are set to meet this week, to discuss timelines for 5G related software upgrades across iPhones.
The meeting will determine the reasons for the delay and when Apple can push out the updates for iPhones users, who can enjoy 5G across India’s second largest telecom network.
The iPhone manufacturer is already testing its devices in Mumbai, Delhi, and other cities on Airtel’s 5G network (which is present in a total of eight cities in the beginning before being expanded later), and Reliance Jio’s 5G service (which is live in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata).
It is expected that the update to support 5G in India will come to Apple’s flagship smartphone lineup (the ones that are compatible with 5G, that is) by December after testing and validating the devices on the superfast network.
The urgent meet comes amidst the backdrop of India officially launching 5G across limited metros on October 1, but iPhone users remaining isolated due to lack of timely software upgrades. Several of the top iPhone as well as Samsung models are not ready to support the latest generation of mobile networks. For instance, the iPhone 14 lineup (which was launched last month but failed to be as popular as Apple had reckoned) does not come with support for 5G in India.
Apple itself has recognized this – its website reads “Apple yet to update software.” This holds true for all the smartphones in the iPhone 12-14 lineups, which are 5G-enabled but are yet to support the 5G services offered by Reliance and Airtel. Samsung has recognized the same issue, and neither company responded to any queries.
