Prioritise 5G software upgrades, Apple and Samsung to be told

New Delhi, Oct 11: The Centre will be pushing Apple, Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers to prioritise rolling out of software updates to support the 5G network in the country. Many of the models of these companies do not ready for the 5G services in India.

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 has rolled out 5G in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi By the end of this year, we will have launched in all key metros and by end of next year we will have 5G coverage across all major cities of India, the Airtel website says.

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.