Vodafone Idea (Vi) has partnered with Motorola to bring support for its 5G on Motorola smartphones. This is a push by Vi to evolve the 5G smartphone ecosystem. However, it is worth noting that Vi would be deploying 5G NSA (non-standalone) in the same spectrum band that Airtel has, and Airtel's 5G is already supported by Motorola 5G smartphones (except Motorola Razr 5G). So it is hard to understand what good this partnership is between Vi and Motorola when the former has not even hinted at when it would launch 5G in India.
Vi said, "To further accelerate the development of the 5G ecosystem in the nation, Vi has partnered with Motorola to ensure seamless 5G connectivity across its extensive 5G smartphone portfolio." But this is not really changing anything, as Motorola 5G smartphones already support 5G in India. The meaningful thing for Vi to do here would be to launch 5G.
A release from the telco said, "Motorola has successfully tested its latest and most popular smartphone models on 3350 to 3400 MHz spectrum bands on Vi 5G network in New Delhi." Note that this doesn't mean that Vi has launched 5G in the city of New Delhi. The telco is only running test networks on which Motorola conducted its tests.
Avneesh Khosla, CMO of Vi, said, "Vi remains committed to playing a significant role in realizing the Digital India dream. We are happy to partner with Motorola in one more step towards our 5G roll out. We believe that the partnership will help develop the 5G device ecosystem, helping more Vi customers upgrade to a superior 5G ready smartphone in time for service roll out".
Vodafone Idea Management on 5G Launch
Vodafone Idea's management has maintained that until and unless the company can raise funds, they can't place commercial orders for 5G. This is why the telco can't comment on any launch timeline for 5G. Thus, this partnership announcement is actually as useless as anything can be. There's no major breakthrough for Vi or Motorola here.
Motorola Smartphones that Support Vi 5G
Here are all the smartphones from Motorola that would support Vi 5G - Motorola Edge 30 Ultra, Motorola Edge 30 Fusion, Moto G62 5G, Motorola Edge 30, Moto G82 5G, Motorola Edge 30 Pro, Moto G71 5G, Moto G51 5G, Motorola Edge 20, Motorola Edge 20 Pro, and Motorola Edge 20 Fusion.
If you didn't know, all these smartphones already support Airtel's 5G NSA networks. It's just funny that without launching its own 5G network, Vi is announcing partnerships with smartphone makers for 5G who have already enabled their devices to support 5G in India.
