Handsets costing more than Rs 10,000 to support 5G

Top representatives from telecom carriers and smartphone manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, took part in the more than an hour-long meeting on challenges linked to facilitating seamless access to 5G services.

In a meeting with senior government officials on Wednesday, representatives of the mobile phone industry assured to progressively stop making 4G phones that cost more than Rs, 10,000 and switch to 5G technology.

In a meeting with mobile operators and smartphone manufacturers, top officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) gave them a period of three months to have their 5G services up and running with 5G smartphones. Senior ministry officials met with the representatives of the nation's cell providers and smartphone manufacturers on Wednesday.

According to a smartphone firm insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity, manufacturers would progressively move toward 5G phones that cost at least Rs 10,000. He informed ANI that India has about 750 million mobile phone subscribers and only about 100 million customers have 5G-capable phones whereas more than 350 million users have 3G or 4G-only mobile phones. He said that we informed the minister that we would progressively stop making 3G-4G compatible phones that cost more than Rs 10,000.

Top representatives from telecom carriers and smartphone manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, took part in the more than an hour-long meeting on challenges linked to facilitating seamless access to 5G services.

While Jio has begun beta trails in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi, Bharti Airtel has begun rolling out its 5G services in 8 cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi.

The topic of enabling client devices to be prepared for 5G services deployed on 5G networks by telecom service providers was on the agenda for the meeting. The discussion also covered the issue of the phone makers' and telecom companies' involvement in the deployment of software FOTA updates for all 5G smartphones. Additionally, it was determined to give the software upgrade top priority for India's early deployment of 5G. (With inputs from ANI)