New Delhi: iPhone 12 and above users in India may finally get to experience 5G services by December when Apple targets to roll out an update of its iOS operating system after testing and validating the devices on the superfast networks in the country, people familiar with the matter told ET.
Senior executives from Apple and Bharti Airtel will meet this week to discuss rollout timeline for software updates to 5G-capable iPhones so that they support the Indian telco’s 5G network, after the matter was escalated to the highest levels in the two companies, one of them said.
The meeting will determine the reasons for the delay and by when Apple can push out the updates for iPhones users to enjoy 5G services of India’s second largest telco.
“Apple is presently testing their devices in cities like Mumbai and Delhi on Airtel’s 5G network, and may roll out the update supporting 5G to supported iPhone models by December,” the person said.
People close to Apple confirmed that the US smartphone major is extensively testing its 5G iPhone models on both Airtel and Reliance Jio‘s 5G networks.
The company usually takes time to test and validate its devices every time a new carrier goes live with their 5G network, they said, and once it feels that the network is going to give the customers the best experience on iPhones, Apple will roll out the update supporting 5G.
Apple and Airtel did not immediately respond to ET’s email requesting comment.
Ookla’s analysis showed that Jio’s 5G performance depends on the spectrum band it uses. The C-band (n=78) results in performance ranging between 606.53Mbps and 875.26Mbps median download speed. While 5G networks using the lower – 700 MHz frequency band (n=28) so-called coverage band, gives lower than 100 Mbps median download speed, ranging between 78.69Mbps and 95.13Mbps.
Apple has a wide range of 5G-enabled iPhone models starting with the iPhone 12 series, but none of them presently support either Airtel or Reliance Jio’s 5G networks.The issue also extends to a wide range of Samsung smartphones, as well as the Google Pixel smartphones. The latter has said 5G support will arrive via a software update in December.
That said, smartphones from Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme working on the Android OS have enabled support for Airtel’s non-standalone 5G Plus network, which went live across eight cities in India including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, on October 1.
Reliance Jio’s 5G service, which is based on a standalone network, is not supported by most devices as of now and will need an update to run, experts said.
