Airtel 5G update: All 5G-enabled Android phones will soon be running on the Bharti network

During the company’s earnings call, Bharti Airtel Managing Director and CEO Gopal Vittal said that Apple will release the software update in the first week of November and all its devices should support the company’s 5G services by mid-December.

Airtel He said the company is providing 5G services at 4G rates, but the pricing of next generation services is likely to be decided in the next 6-9 months.

“Samsung… I think there are 27 models of 5G. 16 models are already ready and capable. Rest will be by November 10-12. All 17 models of OnePlus will work on our network. Vivo all 34 models, realme All 34 models will work on our network. All 33 models of Xiaomi and all 14 models of Oppo will work. Apple has 13 models. They will have (software update) release around first week of November and all of them by mid-December Will be ready,” said Vittal.

Vithal said the company expects to cover all cities in urban India as well as major rural areas by March 2024. According to Vitthal, the company is in the 5G network construction phase and will then decide what it will do, maybe in the next nine months.

“As the network begins to build, we will see a significant portion of our existing data traffic move to 4G airtel 5g plus, This is important as it will allow us to gradually take more and more spectrum to 5G at the flick of a button. We have also started testing the SA (standalone) mode on 5G. This mode may be relevant for some enterprise use cases,” he said.

According to market research firm IDC, 51 million 5G smartphones were shipped from the first half of 2020 to 2022 and they are expected to cross 50 percent market share by 2023.

However, many 5G smartphones have been unable to access 5G services due to the lack of compatibility between the network and the mobile phone.

Bharti may go ahead with Airtel’s scheduled network investment 23,000-24,000 crore per annum to accelerate the rollout of 5G services and gain market share.