iPhone users may get to use Airtel 5G only by December

New Delhi, Oct 12: iPhone users in India whose devices have 5G support may have to wait until December to use the high speed technology offered by Airtel.

Airtel had said that the technology would come to compatible iPhones once Apple updates the software. Apple on the other hand has offered a timeline and said that the over-the-air (OTA) update would roll out in December 2022.

Airtel is likely to expand to more cities by then. Currently Airtel 5G is available in Bengaluru, Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Chennai and Nagpur.

"We are working with our 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. 5G will be enabled via a software update and will start rolling out to iPhone users in December," Apple said in a statement to Economic Times.

On October 1 Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 5G services in India. Reliance Jio's 5G is available in four cities, while Airtel in eight. Both companies would be expanding their services next year.

None of iPhone's models that support 5G are compatible with the service being provided by Airtel. The same is for many models of Samsung. A Reuters report said that top bureaucrats from India's telecoms and IT departments will chair a meeting on Wednesday for the early adoption of 5G. Top executives from Apple, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi as well as domestic telecom operators Reliance, Airtel and Vodafone Idea will be present.

The agenda would include holding talks to prioritise and release software updates for the high speed network.

Airtel on Tuesday said that Apple is yet to update software for all of Apple iPhones' 12 to 14 models under its 5G compatible section. For Samsung the company said that many models were not ready.

The Reuters report while quoting an industry source said that Apple has been taking a lot of time and Airtel is concerned about this as many of their premium clients are on Apple devices. The same report also said that Apple is in the process of testing and validating different 6 offerings from network providers in India.