Indian govt did not instruct smartphone companies to stop making 4G, 3G phones

Hyderabad: At the beginning of this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 5G wireless technology which will provide ultra-high internet speed. Telecom company Reliance Jio first rolled out 5G services in four cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi. Meanwhile, Airtel has launched 5G services in eight cities—Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurugram, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Delhi, Varanasi, and Chennai.

The telcos have said they will introduce 5G services in more cities as they become 5G-ready.

Now, a message is doing rounds on the internet claiming that the Indian government has instructed smartphone companies to stop manufacturing 4G and 3G phones.

A user on Instagram shared an infographic that read "The Indian government has instructed smartphone companies to stop manufacturing 4G and 3G phones and provide 5G connectivity in every phone worth more than Rs. 10,000." (Translated)

Click here to see the post.

NewsMeter ran a keyword search but did not find any such news reported by the media. If there had been any such instruction from the government of India to smartphone companies, the media would have reported it.

Further, we found that PIB Fact Check had tweeted that this claim is fake. "The government has issued no such instructions to stop manufacturing 3G and 4G smartphones," it clarified.

As the government has officially clarified that no such direction has been given to smartphone companies, hence, the claim is false.