Samsung, Apple to enable 5G in devices by mid-November and in December

Samsung and Apple have announced dates for when their devices will start to support 5G in India. Samsung has confirmed that it will enable 5G support in its 5G-ready Galaxy devices in India through a software update that’s set to arrive sometime in the middle of November. Apple, on the other hand, will push out the necessary update to enable 5G in iPhones (iPhone 12 and above) in December. Samsung is quick to note that it has the widest portfolio of 5G devices in the country.

Apple said, “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.”

Apple notably kicked off its 5G portfolio with the launch of iPhone 12 in 2020. As per a survey, the iPhone 12 is said to be the most popular 5G smartphone in India though Samsung remains to be the top player with a 31 percent market share.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had officially launched 5G services in India on October 1 during India Mobile Congress 2022 event following which Airtel and Jio have started rolling out 5G in select cities. While Jio is running an invite-only trial across four cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi, Airtel is offering 5G in a broader sense with Airtel 5G Plus service availability across eight cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi.

Even though 5G is officially a go in India, users can’t use it unless their OEM –original equipment manufacturer— like Samsung and Apple unlocks it with an update. Apple and Samsung’s reveal on 5G support for India users comes on the same day that executives from the company are supposed to meet with the Department of Telecom (DoT) and Ministry of electronics and information technology officials to discuss the use of 5G in the country on a wide scale, making the experience as seamless as possible, and finding measures to tackle issues, if any.