The 5G services have already been rolled out in the country, however, not all phone models, including Apple’s iPhones so far support the latest technology. To address the issue, the government is likely to push Apple, Samsung, and other mobile phone manufacturers to speed up rolling out software upgrades to support 5G in the country,
So far, Reliance Jio has introduced ultra-fast 5G technology in four cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, and Kolkata. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel has also started rolling out its 5G services in eight cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, and Varanasi.
However, only select mobile phone handsets so far support the 5G services while many handsets, including Apple’s latest iPhone 14, and many of Samsung's flagship phones don’t have software compatible with supporting 5G in India, Reuters reported, citing three industry sources.
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Concerned by this, top bureaucrats from India's telecoms and IT departments will chair a meeting on Wednesday for early 5G adoption, asking smartphone executives from foreign companies Apple, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi, as well as domestic telecom operators Reliance, Airtel and Vodafone Idea to be present, the Reuters report said.
The agenda includes holding talks "to prioritise" and release software upgrades for supporting the high-speed network, the notice for the closed-door meeting stated.
"Apple has been taking a lot of time. Airtel has been concerned about this as many of their premium clients are on Apple devices," Reuters cited an industry source as saying.
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The news report said Apple was in the process of testing and validating different 5G offerings from network providers in India.
