With many consumers unable to access 5G services despite having a 5G-enabled smartphone almost two weeks after the ultra-high speed network was introduced, the government has called for a meeting of telecom operators and handset makers to work on resolving issues and expediting the roll-out.
The meeting will be jointly chaired by the Telecom secretary and the IT secretary. In addition to senior officials of the two Ministries, representatives of the three private operators – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, along with representatives from smartphone makers such as Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Realme, Motorola, and OnePlus, are expected to attend the meeting. Technology maker Qualcomm is also likely to be part of the meeting.
The ultra-high speed 5G networks were unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 1. While Bharti Airtel has announced commercial roll out of these services in eight cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi, rival Reliance Jio has started beta trial of these services in 4 cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Varanasi. However, in the cities where the 5G service has been announced, the network is not ubiquitous. For example, in Delhi, Bharti Airtel 5G service is currently available only in select areas.
