Amidst all the rumors surrounding the beginning of trial production of the next-generation iPhones, Apple has received the permission to test 5G wireless connectivity through Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. This indicates that the forthcoming Apple products like iPhones and iPads would be able to support 5G connectivity.
According to DSLReports, Apple will soon begin testing of commercial cellular frequencies of 28 and 39 near its headquarters at locations like Mariana and Milpitas in California. These testing will make it possible to produce engineering data that is required to run future devices on 5G networks.
The 5G logo has been already approved by Cellular Standards entity called 3GPP and the leading U.S. carriers have also started testing 5G connectivity. By end of 2017, AT&T plans to make 5G series available in more than 20 major metros and it is currently testing 5G in Austin. Sprint and T-Mobile have plans to debut 5G connectivity respectively in 2019 and 2020. Some of the other leading companies such as Google, Facebook, Qualcomm, Samsung, Starry, Asus, Ericsson and Motorola have also started testing 5G technology.
Now that Apple has also joined the bandwagon, early speculations indicate that the iPhone 9 coming in 2019 could be featuring the 5G support. However, it will not be available for the upcoming iPhones that are slated to get announced in the last quarter of this year. Instead, the Cupertino company is rumored to bring some exciting features such as 3D facial recognition and wireless charging to the upcoming iPhone 8. The new design of the iPhone 8 has also appeared in new renders.
The 5G connectivity is expected to support bandwidth of 1 gigabit per second. The Cupertino company is rumored to be working on smart glasses that support augmented reality which would be able to work with high-speed 5G connectivity. Apple’s self driving car project will also benefit from instant connection required for navigation data and also for synchronizing with other vehicles that are running on the road.
The Cupertino company has also ended a legal battle that it had filed against Nokia in December. The Finnish firm had accused Apple for violating several of its patents as well as other patents that belonged to its subsidiary companies. At that time, Apple had blamed the Finnish firm for seeking unfair terms.
Nokia had filed legal suit in various countries and the Cupertino company filed antitrust suit against other patent entities that were seeking more settlement and royalty fees on behalf of the Finnish firm. Because of this Apple had reportedly removed the listing of products that belonged to Nokia-owned Whitings from the offline and online store of Apple.
In May, Apple settled the issue with Nokia by making an upfront payment. However, it has been now revealed to NokiaMob by the Nokia that Apple had paid EUR 1.7 billion to it and a part of this amount will appear in the Finnish firm’s second quarter results of 2017.
(Source 1, 2)
