Govt tells mobile companies to discontinue all 4G phones priced above Rs 10,000

Top officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) met phone companies on Wednesday and asked them to switch completely to 5G. The ministry officials have told mobile manufacturers that they only have three months to switch over to 5G services with 5G smartphones.

According to a report from ANI, there are almost 750 million mobile phone subscribers in India, out of which over 350 million users utilize phones that come with support for 3G or 4G, whereas 100 million subscribers in India have 5G-ready phones. The ministry has reportedly told smartphone companies to progressively stop producing 3G-4G compatible phones that cost more than Rs 10,000 and switch to 5G technology completely.

Currently, both Airtel and Jio are offering their 5G services in select cities. While Jio 5G is available in 4 cities, Airtel is rolling out its 5G Plus service in 8 cities in total. Both the telecom operators have confirmed that other cities will get 5G access very soon. Jio said that the pan India rollout of its 5G services will happen by the end of 2023, whereas Airtel 5G will reach each and every corner of the country by March 2024.

Now, some 5G smartphone users living in eligible cities are able to use Jio or Airtel 5G service, but there are also some 5G phone users who are unable to use high-speed internet. Well, that's because both Jio and Aitel 5G services are supported by only three bands - n28, n78, and n258. So, to run Jio or Airtel 5G services on the phone smoothly, your smartphone must come with support for these bands.

The meeting also covered the issue of smartphone manufacturers' and telecom operators' involvement in the deployment of software FOTA updates for all 5G devices. There are smartphones that are 5G compatible but still are unable to run Jio or Airtel 5G services. Now, in that case, the OEM will need to push an update for the phone to run 5G. Several smartphone brands have promised to push the required OTA update in the weeks/months to come, including Apple and Samsung. None of the eligible iPhone models can currently run Jio or Airtel 5G, including the latest iPhone 14 series.