The Indian government will push Apple, Samsung and other handset makers to prioritize the rollout of software upgrades to support 5G in the country amid concerns that many of their models are not yet ready for the recently launched high-speed service.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 5G services on October 1 to much fanfare, with leading telecom operator Reliance Jio saying it would make the service available in four cities and rival Bharti Airtel in eight. Both companies said the service would be expanded next year.
But Apple’s iPhone models, including the latest iPhone 14, and many of Samsung’s top phones do not have software that supports 5G in India, three industry sources and Airtel’s website said.
Amid concerns about this, top officials from India’s telecom and IT departments will chair a meeting on Wednesday on early 5G deployment, inviting smartphone executives from foreign companies Apple, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi, as well as domestic telecom operators Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea, a government document seen by Reuters showed.
The agenda includes holding discussions to “prioritize” and release software upgrades to support the high-speed network, the announcement of the closed-door meeting said.
Apple, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi, as well as the three domestic telecom operators, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government’s IT and telecom departments also did not respond.
India has said the launch of 5G in the world’s largest mobile market after China will give consumers access to super-fast internet, with simultaneous socio-economic benefits in sectors such as agriculture and healthcare.
In August, Jio, India’s largest mobile operator with over 420 million customers, bought airwaves worth $11 billion (roughly Rs. 90,600 crore) in a $19 billion (roughly Rs. 1.6 lakh crore) 5G spectrum auction. Airtel spent over $5 billion (roughly Rs. 41,000 crore), while Vodafone doled out over $2 billion (roughly Rs. 16,500 crore).
While telecom and smartphone companies are in talks, compatibility issues between telcos’ specific 5G technology in India and phone software are still taking a long time to be resolved, one of the industry sources said.
Airtel’s website on Tuesday showed that “Apple is yet to update the software” for all Apple iPhones 12 to 14 models under its 5G-compatible section. Samsung too had many models not ready yet, Airtel said, while over three dozen models from China’s Xiaomi and Vivo were shown as ready to use its 5G service.
“Apple has spent a lot of time on this. Airtel was concerned about this because a lot of their premium customers use Apple devices,” said a second industry source with direct knowledge of the situation, who added that Apple and Airtel have held discussions.
A third source with direct knowledge of the issue said Apple was testing and validating various 5G offerings from carriers in India.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
