Bharti Airtel\u2019s recently launched \u201cPriority Postpaid\u201d service, enabled by fifth-generation (5G) network slicing, is yet to become available to a majority of Android smartphone and Apple iPhone users due to compatibility-related issues. <\/p>\n
The Gurugram-based telecom operator\u2019s service relies on the 5G standalone (SA) network architecture, which is supported primarily on certain premium smartphones. On the contrary, most budget-to-mid-end handsets only support 5G non-standalone (NSA). <\/p>\n
Furthermore, users on community websites and online forums said they are facing issues with the Priority Postpaid service, including being unable to receive phone calls with 5G selected as the preferred network on their smartphone. <\/p>\n
Several users also complained that they are getting a smartphone not ready message in the Airtel Thanks app, despite their device supporting 5G SA and network slicing technologies. <\/p>\n
It is to be noted that a major segment of India\u2019s smartphone market lies in the price bands of $100-200 (\u20b99,500-19,000) and $200-400 (\u20b919,000-38,000), according to the latest study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) for the January-March quarter of 2026. <\/p>\n
However, an industry source told ETTelecom that Airtel\u2019s Priority Postpaid will be available on selected high-end Samsung and iPhones initially, with a phased roll-out to other smartphone OEMs. <\/p>\n
An Airtel customer care executive said the telco is committed to delivering a seamless 5G experience to customers. <\/p>\n
\u201cPowered by Airtel\u2019s upgraded 5G network with fast lane technology, it helps customers stay seamlessly connected for streaming, video calls, browsing and uploads,\u201d the customer care executive told ETTelecom, adding that users on 5G SA-compatible smartphones will be eligible for Airtel Postpaid Priority Services benefits. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are rapidly expanding our network,\u201d the executive said. \u201cWe remain committed to delivering an enhanced and seamless 5G experience to our customers in the near future.\u201d <\/p>\n
Airtel on May 19 launched the new postpaid service in India, with packs priced from \u20b9499 per month (ex-GST), bundled with over-the-top (OTT) content offerings, in a bid to kickstart its 5G monetisation efforts and take the lead over rivals Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi). <\/p>\n
The offering though soon came under the government\u2019s scrutiny after a section of stakeholders raised concerns about potential violation of net neutrality principles. <\/p>\n
The Sunil Mittal-driven telco maintains that it fully aligns with and complies with the country’s net neutrality norms, and the newly-unveiled service does not include any content-based discrimination, and there are no commercial arrangements with content providers. <\/p>\n
5G slicing is the use of network virtualisation to divide single network connections into multiple distinct virtual connections that provide different amounts of resources to different types of traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bharti Airtel\u2019s recently launched \u201cPriority Postpaid\u201d service, enabled by fifth-generation (5G) network slicing, is yet to become available to a majority of Android smartphone and Apple iPhone users due to compatibility-related issues. The Gurugram-based telecom operator\u2019s service relies on the 5G standalone (SA) network architecture, which is supported primarily on certain premium smartphones. On the contrary, most budget-to-mid-end handsets only support 5G non-standalone (NSA). Furthermore, users on community websites and online forums said they are facing issues with the Priority Postpaid service, including being unable to receive phone calls with 5G selected as the preferred network on their smartphone. Several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1011747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telecom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011748,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011747\/revisions\/1011748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}