Airtel has announced Airtel 5G Plus in eight Indian cities today. The company, starting today, is pushing its 5G services to customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. The roll out will happen in a phased manner as the company continues to construct its network and complete the roll out. The company plans to cover all the urban cities in 2023.
The company, for now, is taking no extra charges for the service. All the current 4G SIMs have been 5G-enabled which means any user on Airtel 4G and living in one of these 8 Indian cities can start using it but there’s an if here. The service will only work if your phone is 5G-ready.
Airtel claims that the 5G Plus will offer 30X faster download speeds than Airtel 4G. The video and voice call connection will also be improved but all these will happen only when your smartphone is 5G-ready. Airtel has said that it is in continuous talks with smartphone companies to tune their phones for Airtel’s 5G services. The telco itself also plans to develop a 5G smartphone under Rs 10k but it could come only next year.
Currently there are many smartphone companies that are offering 5G-ready phones in the market. A 5G smartphone will work on both Airtel 5G Plus and 4G networks. To know their names, check out this list.
- Samsung: Galaxy A53, A33 5G, S21 FE, S22 Ultra, M33, Flip4, Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and Fold 4.
- Realme: Realme Narzo 50 5G, Narzo 50 Pro, Narzo 30 5G, Narzo 30 Pro 5G will support 5G. Other Realme devices that support Airtel 5G include the Realme 8 5G, Realme 8s 5G, Realme GT 5G, Realme GT ME, Realme GT Neo 2, Realme GT 2, Realme GT 2 Pro, Realme GT Neo 3, Realme X7 5G, Realme X7 Max 5G, Realme X7 Pro 5G, Realme X50 Pro, Realme 9, Realme 9 Pro, Realme 9 Pro Plus, and Realme 9 SE.
- Xiaomi: Xiaomi Mi 10, Mi 10i, Mi 10T, Mi 10T Pro, Xiaomi 12 Pro, Mi 11 Ultra, Mi 11X Pro, Mi 11X, Mi 11 Lite NE, Xiaomi 11i, Xiaomi 11T Pro, and Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge.
- Redmi: Redmi Note 11T 5G, Redmi Note 10T, Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus, Redmi 11 Prime, and Redmi K50 are some of the phones that will support Airtel 5G.
- Poco: Poco M3 Pro 5G, Poco F3 GT, Poco M4 5G, Poco M4 Pro 5G, Poco F4 5G and Poco X4 Pro will support 5G.
- Oppo: Opoo Reno 5G Pro, Reno 6, Reno 6 Pro, Reno 7, Reno 7 Pro, Reno 8, Reno 8 Pro, Oppo F19 Pro Plus, Oppo A53s, Oppo A74, Oppo F21 Pro, Oppo K10 5G, Oppo F21s Pro 5G and Oppo Find X2(with software update) will support the network.
- Vivo: Vivo X50 Pro, V20 Pro, X60 Pro+, X60, X60 Pro+, X70 Pro, X70 Pro+, X80, X80 Pro, V20 Pro, V21 5G, V21e, Y72 5G, V23 5G, V23 Pro 5G, V23e 5G, T1 5G, T1 Pro 5G, Y75 5G, V25, V25 Pro, Y55, and Y55s.
- iQOO: iQOO 9T, iQOO Z6, iQOO 9 SE, iQOO 9 Pro, iQOO 9, iQOO Z5 5G, iQOO Z3, iQOO 7 and iQOO 7 Legend.
- OnePlus: OnePlus Nord, Nord CE, Nord CE 2, Nord CE 2 Lite, Nord 2T 5G, OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro, OnePlus 10 Pro 5G, OnePlus 10R and OnePlus 10T will support Airtel 5G. The OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus 8T, OnePlus 9R, OnePlus 9RT and OnePlus Nord 2 5G will also support Airtel 5G but will require a software update first.
- Apple: iPhone 12 series, Apple iPhone 13, iPhone 14 and the iPhone SE 2022 will support Airtel 5G. However, Airtela has said that these iPhones will require a software update to use the service.
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