Representatives of mobile phone manufacturers met with senior government officials on Wednesday and assured that they would gradually discontinue the production of 4G phones priced at Rs. 10,000 and above and that they will switch to 5G technology.
Top officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) met with mobile operators and smartphone makers in a three-month timeframe, directing them to use their 5G services with the 5G smartphone. On Wednesday morning, top officials from both the ministry met with the representatives of mobile operators and smartphone manufacturers of the country.
On the condition not to be quoted, an official of a smartphone business told ANI that smartphone makers will gradually shift to a 5G phone priced on or above the Rs. 10, 000 range.
India has 750 million mobile phone users, according to the ministry of India. 100 million subscribers in India have 5G-ready phones, but more than 350 million users utilize it only 3G-4G compatible phones. "We have told the ministry that our company will gradually discontinue threeG-4G compatible phones, which are priced above Rs 10,000.
Another official of a smartphone business told ANI that the meeting was called for a fine-tunement between mobile operators and smartphone makers. Smartphone manufacturers agreed to begin testing their devices with the mobile operators providing 5G services.
According to a source, over 100 million Indian subscribers have 5G-ready phones, but many devices that are not compatible with 5G services, including Apple, are currently failing to provide the service. "We will investigate the nature of the problem that the consumers who have a 5G phone are facing," the official said.
Bharti Airtel has started testing 5G in eight cities in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, and Varanasi, while Jio has begun beta testing in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi.
During the discussion, participants discussed the possibility that the handsets of customers will be able to receive software FOTA upgrades for all 5G Handsets, according to the handsets manufacturers and telecom service providers. It was also agreed to prioritize the software upgrade for the early adoption of 5G in India.