Airtel’s 4G SIM are 5G-enabled, customers to upgrade to 5G smartphones

The country’s second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel (Airtel), on Wednesday, said that the its existing 4G SIM is 5G-enabled and that customers only have to upgrade to 5G smartphones.

“Your Airtel Sim is already 5G-enabled. So, it will work seamlessly on your 5G smartphone. Most smartphones that are more than a year old do not have a 5G chipset. However, new smartphones that are now in India are mostly 5G-enabled. So, if you are buying a new smartphone, do check whether it is 5G-enabled,” said Gopal Vittal, Chief Executive Officer, Airtel in a letter to customers.

In order to enable 5G on a smartphone, go to the settings tab and get to connections or mobile network. There will be a option to pick 5G in addition to 4G or LTE, select that mode and the handset is ready, he said.

He said that Airtel 5G will deliver “dramatically higher speeds”, compared to a 4G network, and it could be anywhere between 20 to 30 times the speed one gets today.

“This will allow you to boot up an application or download a heavy file in no time…within a few weeks [next month], we will commence the launch of our next generation technology, Airtel 5G,” he informed and said will clear any doubt about 5G to the customers.

He said the Airtel 5G network is being built keeping in mind the smartphone and the customer and there are three clear advantages: “First, of the two 5G technologies, we have chosen a specific 5G technology that has the widest eco-system in the world. This means that all 5G smartphones in India will work on the Airtel network without any glitch. This will be true even when you travel abroad with your Airtel 5G-enabled phone. In other technologies, it is possible that as many as four out of ten 5G phones don’t support 5G.

“Second, the company was confident of raising the bar on the experience, adding that Airtel has the best engineers, built state-of-the-art tools and conducted numerous first-of-its-kind trials across several cities and use cases to ensure that Airtel 5G experience is incomparable.

“Third, we will be kinder to the environment. All of us are now struggling with extreme heat and unpredictable rains caused by climate change. This problem is now real. So, we have signed on to an ambitious goal of lowering our carbon footprint in the next few decades. As a result, the 5G solution we have chosen will be the most energy and carbon efficient in India,” he said.

Vittal further said Airtel 5G will also enable differential quality for special requirements, something called network slicing. So, if a customer is a gamer, and want a flawless experience, Airtel will be able to slice the network for or if one is working from home and want a consistent experience, Airtel will also deliver that.

“By December, we should have coverage in the key metros. After that we will expand rapidly to cover the entire country. We expect to cover all of urban India by the end of 2023. If you want to know the availability of 5G in your town, you will be able to check it on the Airtel Thanks App and see whether your phone and city is 5G-ready. This feature will be available on our app with the 5G launch,” he added. The Hindu BusinessLine