An iPhone 12 or 13 on Google Fi is currently limited to 4G LTE data, but that might be changing as the iOS 16.4 beta appears to add support for 5G service.
After updating to iOS 16.4 beta 1, 5G service is appearing for Google Fi subscribers. The “Voice & Data” menu in Settings shows “5G On” and “5G Auto” in addition to LTE.
Officially, “Fi for iOS is in beta, so not all Fi features will be supported, with Google on the Fi website clearly stating that “5G data isn’t supported.” Looking at the MVNO landscape, Mint Mobile (which also uses T-Mobile) and Visible (Verizon) already offer 5G on the iPhone
Meanwhile, iOS 16.4 also brings 5G Standalone (SA) on T-Mobile. It first launched on Samsung’s Galaxy S22 in November, with the carrier saying that up to 3Gbps speeds are possible with 5G SA + carrier aggregation.
iOS 16.4 is still in the beta phase, and it remains to be seen whether this 5G support makes it out of testing into the stable release.
We’ll be reaching out to Google to confirm that this Fi 5G availability for the iPhone is intentional.
More on Google Fi:
- Google Fi impacted by T-Mobile outage
- Google survey wants feedback from international Fi travelers
- Fi now supports eSIM on these Samsung Galaxy smartphones
- One Google Fi customer had accounts hacked in SIM attack related to recent data breach
Author: Abner Li
Source: 9TO5Google
