Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked-off 5G services rollout in India on October 1 during India Mobile World Congress 2022 event. Major telcos like Airtel and Reliance Jio have started rolling out 5G for users in select cities, following the announcement. Others like Vodafone Idea (Vi) and BSNL will follow suit, soon enough.
Naturally, you would require a 5G handset to make use of the service(s). But it turns out that, that won’t be enough as even if your device is 5G-ready in terms of hardware, it would need a software update from your original equipment manufacturer to unlock it. This means you can’t access and start using 5G on your 5G handset unless Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, and others push out necessary updates, the timeline for which would vary from OEM to OEM, and even from device to device. This is a standard procedure as brands would need some time to test and ensure their devices work well and seamlessly with the 5G networks in India.
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There is also the bit about underlying technology that telcos are using, which would each require separate testing. While Airtel and Vi’s 5G is based on non-standalone (NSA) technology, Jio is relying on standalone (SA) 5G which would work independent of 4G. You can read more about the differences between Airtel and Jio 5G in our detailed coverage report here.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) and Ministry of electronics and information technology officials met telcos and smartphone makers on Wednesday in a bid to speed up 5G adoption in India, making the experience as seamless as possible for users, and finding measures to tackle issues, if any. Post the meeting, there’s more clarity on when some of the brands would enable 5G on their devices.
So, let’s jump in and address the elephant in the room— here’s when Xiaomi, Samsung, Apple, Motorola, Oppo and others will enable 5G in their devices for users:
Samsung
Samsung says it is “committed” to rolling out the necessary updates to all its 5G devices by mid-November.
“We are working closely with our operator partners and are committed to rolling out OTA updates across all our 5G devices by mid-November 2022, enabling Indian consumers to experience 5G seamlessly,” a Samsung spokesperson confirmed to FE over email.
Apple
Apple has set a target of December to rollout updates to enable 5G on iPhone 12 and above.
“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,” Cupertino told FE, adding that “5G will be enabled via a software update and will start rolling out to iPhone users in December.”
Xiaomi
Xiaomi is a little more specific, and also, seems to be on top of its game when it comes to rolling out 5G support to its devices saying all its 5G handsets support the NSA network right out-of-the-box, while SA support will be added to “most” devices by Diwali, which is to say by the end of October. For some devices like the 12 Pro and Mi 11X Pro, the rollout has already begun, Xiaomi adds.
“Currently, 100 percent of our 5G smartphone models support the NSA network out of the box, wherein users can choose ‘Prefer 5G’ in network settings to connect to the 5G network,” Xiaomi India president Muralikrishnan B informed FE, adding that “for seamless SA support, we have already started rolling out the FOTA updates to select devices like Xiaomi 12 Pro 5G, Mi 11X Pro, Xiaomi 11i, Xiaomi 11i Hypercharge, among others” and “most devices will start receiving OTA updates by Diwali.”
Oppo
Oppo devices, similarly, are equipped to support 5G on a non-standalone network already and the brand says it is working to enable standalone 5G support at the earliest.
“Currently, all our devices are equipped to support 5G on a non-standalone network,” Tasleem Arif, VP and R&D Head at Oppo India confirmed to FE, adding that “the team at the Oppo India R&D has also been working backend to ensure the standalone 5G support is enabled at the earliest.”
Motorola
Motorola, too, has started rolling out necessary updates to enable 5G (SA and NSA, both) beginning with the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra and Edge 30 Fusion at the time of writing, it says. It is targeting the first week of November for completing the rollout.
“We have already started the roll-out of OTA software updates for enabling 5G across both SA (Reliance Jio) and NSA (Airtel and Vi) 5G modes, simultaneously on Motorola devices, enabling consumers to experience seamless 5G across operators,” Prashanth Mani, Executive Director, Motorola Asia Pacific, told FE, adding that “our updates on the recently launched Motorola Edge 30 Ultra and Edge 30 Fusion have already been rolled out and other Motorola 5G devices will be receiving the updates in subsequent weeks, targeting completion by the first week of November 2022.”
This is a developing story. We will update it as we receive more clarity from smartphone brands.
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