Top officials from the DoT and IT ministries convened a joint meeting of smartphone companies, including Apple and Samsung, and telecom operators on issues related to supply seamless access to 5G services, a government official said on Tuesday.
While over 100 million registered users in India have 5G-had a phone, many devices, including Appleservice is not currently supported.
“We will work together to ensure a smooth 5G rollout, including smooth consumer access,” an official source told PTI.
A joint meeting of smartphone companies and telecom operators will be held on Wednesday in Department of Telecommunications (DoT) office.
The secretaries of both the DoT and the Ministry of Electronics and IT will chair the meeting to discuss evolving 5G issues.
The agenda of the meeting included a discussion around enabling handsets to start supporting 5G services on 5G networks in India.
Bharti Airtel is the only company that has commercially deployed 5G services while Jio beta testing has begun.
At the meeting, the authorities will discuss the intervention of handset manufacturers and telecommunication Operators release software updates for all 5G handsets and prioritize software upgrades for 5G adoption in India.
According to an industry source, who did not wish to be identified, Apple is currently testing iPhones with Airtel and Jio to work on software updates that will provide access to 5G services for consumers. .
Another source tells it all SAMSUNG flagship smartphones and some mid-range 5G handsets already support 5G services, and the company is working on releasing an update for the rest of the smartphones.
According to an Ericsson report, Over the past two years, India has seen the number of smartphone users owning 5G devices triple.
Research shows that more than 100 million users with 5G-enabled smartphones want to upgrade to a 5G subscription by 2023 while more than half of them are ready to upgrade to a higher-tier data plan in the next 12 months .
Bharti Airtel has started 5G rollout in 8 cities Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi while Jio has started beta testing in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi.
5G services will gradually roll out nationwide over the next few years – Jio promises to do so by December 2023 and Bharti Airtel by March 2024.
