Apple says iPhones will get 5G update in India by December

iPhones in India will get software updates to enable 5G usage by December, the Cupertino-based smartphone maker said in a statement, even as top officials from the department of telecom and ministry of electronics and information technology met with telcos and smartphone makers to prioritise early adoption of 5G in India. “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," an Apple spokesperson said Thursday.

 A Samsung India spokesperson also said that the brand was working with carriers and that it will roll out OTA updates across all its 5G devices by mid-November. Telecom services providers Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have launched 5G services in eight and four cities, respectively. Yet, smartphone users owning 5G ready phones are unable to use 5G services in these cities which include top metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. 

Some of the users using the latest iPhone 14 models, costing ₹1 lakh upwards, took to Twitter to point out the issue with some even saying that lower costing Android phones were able to latch on to 5G networks and use high-speed data. The government met executives from more than a dozen companies including telecom services providers Jio, Airtel and Vi and smartphone makers such as Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo among others, on Thursday, where the it sought involvement of smartphone makers to release their firmware upgrades that are needed for 5G devices to latch on to 5G networks.