Less than two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 5G services in the country, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) pulled up handset makers asking them to quickly roll out software support for the latest generation of mobile telephony. Following a meeting with top bureaucrats of the telecom department and the IT ministry on Wednesday, Samsung and Apple said they will upgrade the software for their 5G-enabled phones in India by the end of this year.
Despite the high decibel launch of 5G services earlier this month at the India Mobile Congress, many users with 5G-enabled phones reported not getting the services in the cities where the networks were launched. This was mainly because certain handsets, while having the requisite antenna to latch on to 5G networks, required over-the-air software updates to be compatible with the networks.
In a statement, iPhone-maker Apple said that it will start rolling out 5G software updates for iPhone users in December. The upgrade will include models, including the iPhone 14, 13, 12 and iPhone SE. “5G will be enabled via a software update and will start rolling out to iPhone users in December,” Apple said. Apple said it is working with carrier partners in India to bring the best 5G experience to iPhone users as soon as network validation and testing for quality and performance is completed.
Apple’s rival and South Korean electronics maker Samsung said it plans to roll out over-the-air updates across all its 5G devices by mid-November to enable Indian consumers to experience the high speed services seamlessly. “We are working closely with our operator partners and are committed to rolling out OTA updates across all our 5G devices by mid-November 2022, enabling Indian consumers to experience 5G seamlessly,” a Samsung India spokesperson said.
Currently, Bharti Airtel is the only company to have commercially launched 5G services while Jio has started beta trials. Bharti Airtel has started rolling 5G in eight cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi while Jio has started beta trials in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi. The 5G services will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years – Jio said it plans to do that by December 2023 and Bharti Airtel by March 2024.
According to sources, telecom operators had raised concerns over delay in rollout of software patches to smartphones in context of timely proliferation of 5G services. As of now there are 128 smartphone models available in the Indian market that are compatible with 5G, and according to an Ericsson report, over the past two years, India has witnessed three times increase in smartphone users who own a 5G handset. The study shows that over 100 million users with 5G-ready smartphones wish to upgrade to a 5G subscription in 2023 while more than half of them are open to upgrading to a higher data tier plan in the next 12 months.
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