Apple and Samsung will launch 5G technology in India Soon
The rollout of 5G to final users has started in India. Airtel and Jio 5G services are currently available in significant cities like Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, and others. iPhone consumers are still waiting as 5G functionality has started to go out to Android users’ handsets. By December of this year, the Apple iPhone 5G upgrade will be available.
After “testing and certifying the devices on the ultrafast network,” Apple reportedly would upgrade its iOS software to support 5G by December. For those who are unaware, Apple iPhone 12 and higher are the only models with 5G network functionality. According to reports, senior executives from Apple and Airtel will meet this week to go through the rollout timetable.
According to the article, the meeting will decide the reasons for the delay and the date by which Apple must issue the updates so that those iPhone users can enjoy the 5G services of India’s second-largest telecom.
It further states that Apple is testing 5G on numerous iPhone models for both the Airtel and Jio 5G networks in Mumbai and New Delhi. Separately, the Indian government will put pressure on Apple, Samsung, and other smartphone manufacturers to prioritize releasing software updates to enable 5G in the country, according to a report by Reuters.
This is because there are concerns that some of their models are not ready for the recently introduced high-speed service.
On October 1st, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled 5G services during the sixth India Mobile Congress (IMC), 2022. During the launch, leading telecom provider Reliance Jio said that it would offer the service in four locations and rival Bharti Airtel in eight.
Both companies announced that the service would be expanded in 2019. The software required to allow 5G in India is absent from several of Samsung’s top-tier handsets, including the most recent iPhone model, the iPhone 14. The lack of 5G software updates has already irritated users across the country.
In India, Apple, Google, and Samsung will shortly deliver software updates that support 5G. Just days after local bureaucrats started pressuring the phone makers to quicken their efforts, Apple, Google, and Samsung announced on Wednesday that they would provide software upgrades to allow 5G support on their respective handsets in India, the second-largest cellular market in the world.
The two biggest carriers in India, Reliance Jio and Airtel, have recently begun to offer 5G services in a few Indian towns, but many of the country’s most well-liked smartphones aren’t currently compatible with the regional airwaves.
Although the hardware in these smartphones supports 5G, manufacturers must collaborate with regional network providers to make software upgrades that enable compatibility for their networks.
To achieve this, Apple announced today that a software update would be released in December that will allow 5G on iPhones used in India. The iPhone 12 from Apple featured 5G technology for the first time in 2020.
“We are working with our carrier partners in India to provide the best 5G experience to iPhone users as soon as network validation and testing for quality and performance are complete,” the company said. According to a statement from Apple, software updates for 5G will begin to be distributed to iPhone customers in December.
Although it hasn’t given a precise timeframe for the rollout, Google has also guaranteed a software upgrade for its products.
“The Pixel 7, 7 Pro, and Pixel 6a are 5G-ready gadgets. To provide functionality as soon as possible, we are actively collaborating with Indian carriers, a Google representative said in a statement. In July, Google introduced the Pixel 6a in India, and the Pixel 7 series will follow soon.
Samsung, the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in the nation, is planning to deploy software updates to enable local airwaves compatibility across all of its 5G phones in the country, much like Apple and Google.
“Samsung has been at the forefront of 5G technology development since 2009 and has taken the lead in establishing 5G standards around the world. Samsung has the largest selection of 5G devices in India.
In a statement, a Samsung India representative stated, “We are committed to sending out OTA upgrades across all of our 5G devices by mid-November 2022, enabling Indian users to enjoy 5G seamlessly.”
India set a record in July when it sold the rights to 5G airwaves in an auction for a whopping $19 billion. The majority of the spectrum has been acquired by Jio, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who also pledged to invest $25 billion in the development and expansion of its 5G services. One of the last major markets to adopt 5G, South Asia has great expectations for its potential.
“5G is a ringing bell for a new age in this nation. At a gathering last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared, “It is the beginning of an unlimited sky of chances.
In terms of market share, the smartphones produced by Apple and Google both account for a modest portion of the Indian smartphone market. Due to significantly lower sales, Google’s data are unavailable, while Apple controls barely 4% of the local smartphone market. The overall installed base of 5G-capable cellphones in India reached 50 million in July, according to the analytics firm Counterpoint.
Some headsets from Chinese manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Realme, and OnePlus already support Bharti Airtel’s 5G services, according to the carrier’s support page.
Notably, through an invite-only initiative, Airtel has enabled its 5G services in eight cities, while Reliance Jio has enabled them in four cities. In the upcoming years, both of these network service providers intend to increase 5G coverage all across the nation.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Airtel, stated that the business plans to cover every area of its eight launch cities by March 2023 and the entire nation by the same date. Reliance Jio has some fairly lofty objectives because it intends to roll out 5G services all across the nation by 2023.
Edited by Prakriti Arora
