iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 mini support mmWave 5G, but only in US [u]

AppleInsider

Apple's latest iPhone 12 models are the first to feature 5G connectivity, but access to ultra-fast mmWave bands are limited to customers in the U.S.

Support for speedy 5G connectivity was a central selling point when Apple announced the new handsets on Tuesday. According to a support document, however, access to bands that offer the greatest data transfer potential are limited to certain models.

As noted by Apple, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone mini integrate Qualcomm radios compatible with the n260 and n261 bands, which operate at 39GHz and 28GHz, respectively. Known as mmWave, these high-frequency bands feature wavelengths that can be measured in millimeters instead of centimeters or larger, and provide ample data transfer capability with bandwidths exceeding 3GHz.

While Apple's 5G-compatible iPhones support a wide range of bands, including those that operate in the robust sub-6GHz spectrum, mmWave is restricted to U.S. models.

Apple says it "had to do things a little differently" to enable 5G communication on iPhone, like engineering custom antennas and radio parts.

"Then we gave iPhone 12 Pro the most 5G bands of any smartphone, so you'll get 5G in more places," the company says on its website.

On the software side, Apple optimized its software stack to take full advantage of 5G's speed while maximizing efficiency. The company claims "many apps" will net 5G gains without drawing additional power.

Apple is jumping on the 5G bandwagon, but is doing so in a typically slow and steady way. Sensitive to the immense power draw required to make 5G work, the company is implementing smart algorithms to enable the hungry radios only when needed.

Whether mmWave compatibility will extend to countries beyond the U.S. remains to be seen, but that is a distinct possibility if Apple is simply disabling those bands in select geographies. The company is currently working with mobile carriers to optimize their networks, suggesting mmWave could appear in more locales as the project evolves.

Update: The Verge's Nilay Patel has confirmed that the mysterious cutout on the side of certain iPhone 12 models is a mmWave antenna window. The revelation suggests mmWave will indeed be restricted to the U.S. for the foreseeable future.

Scot1

Why is MM wave restricted to US models?

jasonfj

By omission, the headline suggests the Pro models do support mmWave 5G outside of the US...?

dewme

Scot1 said:

Why is MM wave restricted to US models?

Probably due to regional restrictions on the use of the electromagnetic spectrum that still need to be worked out with other countries. The US (and EU, other countries) cannot allocate spectrum outside of their own borders. These spectrum issues need to be negotiated and worked out regionally and internationally before device makers can go into those markets with radio broadcasting equipment.

larryjw

Apple certainly pushed the 5G. 

Is there an effort to limit the far faster Wi-Fi? Why would any consumer want to pay the exorbitant cellular data rates?

rcfa

Well, there’s international roaming. Just because carriers outside the US don’t support it, doesn’t mean that people traveling with their phones in the US don’t want to be able to use it.

ezpeezy

jasonfj said:

By omission, the headline suggests the Pro models do support mmWave 5G outside of the US...?

@jasonfj - No iPhone 12 model will support 5G mmWave outside the US at launch. The spectrum has not been negotiated / allocated in other countries yet. The headline is worded that way because it was previously speculated that only Pro models would support 5G mmWave, but worldwide. Instead, all iPhone 12 models support 5G mmWave, but only in the US.

larryjw said:

Apple certainly pushed the 5G. 

Is there an effort to limit the far faster Wi-Fi? Why would any consumer want to pay the exorbitant cellular data rates?

@larryjw - Of course there is no 'effort' to limit Wi-Fi.  There are 2 incorrect assumptions in your question. For many people Wi-Fi is not always 'far faster', either due to where they live or because they don't work in a traditional office. If Wi-Fi is slow it is almost certainly due to the network, not the phone. Your other incorrect assumption is depending on where people live, cellular data rates are often not 'exorbitant' as you say.

As 5G becomes more prevalent and is able to more easily handle large amounts of users, it could certainly fully replace WiFi in many parts of the world. Also, 5G offers much higher security and privacy versus using public WiFi networks.

mattinoz

So can it be switched off to stop it needlessly wasting power (even in the US)?

ezpeezy

mattinoz said:

So can it be switched off to stop it needlessly wasting power (even in the US)?

iPhone 12 will automatically switch from 5G to 4G LTE to save battery life when the higher data rates are not needed. The n260 and n261 mmWave bands are just part of the overall 5G band options in the US. It would be interesting to see if in addition to the automatic switching, users would be able to manually disable 5G mmWave (or 5G altogether) in settings to limit battery consumption. We'll find out soon as the first users get their hands on iPhone 12.

Rayz2016

ezpeezy said:

mattinoz said:

So can it be switched off to stop it needlessly wasting power (even in the US)?

iPhone 12 will automatically switch from 5G to 4G LTE to save battery life when the higher data rates are not needed. The n260 and n261 mmWave bands are just part of the overall 5G band options in the US. It would be interesting to see if in addition to the automatic switching, users would be able to manually disable 5G mmWave (or 5G altogether) in settings to limit battery consumption. We'll find out soon as the first users get their hands on iPhone 12.

Good grief, is this a new user posting … correct information?

I’d forgotten what that looked like!

tmay

ezpeezy said:

jasonfj said:

By omission, the headline suggests the Pro models do support mmWave 5G outside of the US...?

@jasonfj - No iPhone 12 model will support 5G mmWave outside the US at launch. The spectrum has not been negotiated / allocated in other countries yet. The headline is worded that way because it was previously speculated that only Pro models would support 5G mmWave, but worldwide. Instead, all iPhone 12 models support 5G mmWave, but only in the US.

larryjw said:

Apple certainly pushed the 5G. 

Is there an effort to limit the far faster Wi-Fi? Why would any consumer want to pay the exorbitant cellular data rates?

@larryjw - Of course there is no 'effort' to limit Wi-Fi.  There are 2 incorrect assumptions in your question. For many people Wi-Fi is not always 'far faster', either due to where they live or because they don't work in a traditional office. If Wi-Fi is slow it is almost certainly due to the network, not the phone. Your other incorrect assumption is depending on where people live, cellular data rates are often not 'exorbitant' as you say.

As 5G becomes more prevalent and is able to more easily handle large amounts of users, it could certainly fully replace WiFi in many parts of the world. Also, 5G offers much higher security and privacy versus using public WiFi networks.

I don't believe that there is much of a security dichotomy in 5G vs Wifi 6 with WPA3 certificates, and from my reading, the two can actually work well together, including handoffs.

More to the point, 5G will initially be ubiquitous only in the lowband, and mostly via existing though repurposed 4G, with a fairly slow ramp to midband 5G (2.5-3.5Ghz). That being the case, it makes sense for consumers with cable/coax internet, to consider upgrading their routers to Wifi 6 to enjoy immediate performance benefits with the various Apple devices that currently support the WiFi 6 standard.

Maybe 5G will replace WiFi in many parts of the world, but given the fiber infrastructure that both 5G and WiFi will require, I don't think WiFi will limited at all by 5G buildout.

mike1

larryjw said:

Apple certainly pushed the 5G. 

Is there an effort to limit the far faster Wi-Fi? Why would any consumer want to pay the exorbitant cellular data rates?

1. The data rates are no more than previously for many of us with unlimited plans. Just adjusted my unlimited plan with AT&T. It added tethering, 5G and is costing me less than before.

2. Have you ever used WiFi in public? Generally slow, with weak signal and always insecure. Don't even mention using a VPN for security. The vast majority of people won't even know what that means.

rcfa said:

Well, there’s international roaming. Just because carriers outside the US don’t support it, doesn’t mean that people traveling with their phones in the US don’t want to be able to use it.

It would be illegal to sell in those countries. If this is your problem, then buy your phone in the US during your next visit.

Gaby

ezpeezy said:

jasonfj said:

By omission, the headline suggests the Pro models do support mmWave 5G outside of the US...?

@jasonfj - No iPhone 12 model will support 5G mmWave outside the US at launch. The spectrum has not been negotiated / allocated in other countries yet. The headline is worded that way because it was previously speculated that only Pro models would support 5G mmWave, but worldwide. Instead, all iPhone 12 models support 5G mmWave, but only in the US.

larryjw said:

Apple certainly pushed the 5G. 

Is there an effort to limit the far faster Wi-Fi? Why would any consumer want to pay the exorbitant cellular data rates?

@larryjw - Of course there is no 'effort' to limit Wi-Fi.  There are 2 incorrect assumptions in your question. For many people Wi-Fi is not always 'far faster', either due to where they live or because they don't work in a traditional office. If Wi-Fi is slow it is almost certainly due to the network, not the phone. Your other incorrect assumption is depending on where people live, cellular data rates are often not 'exorbitant' as you say.

As 5G becomes more prevalent and is able to more easily handle large amounts of users, it could certainly fully replace WiFi in many parts of the world. Also, 5G offers much higher security and privacy versus using public WiFi networks.

It is understandable that different countries are utilising varying bandwidths for different purposes and that in time things will likely improve but what I don’t appreciate is that the actual hardware itself is crippled for people outside the USA. If they are indeed creating different models completely omitting the mmWave radios/antennae then this is what I disagree with. Who is to say that 6 months down the line the UK for example opens up that frequency to support 5G. Without the hardware being capable we are left behind. Or I decide to move abroad to another territory that Supoorts it?! I hope this is a misunderstanding, or they should discount the models and they certainly should have specified at the launch because I imagine that would be a disappointment to many people. Personally I see little use for it and I’ve certainly no interest at this point particularly if the networks increase the service charge. But on principle I disagree. 

johncalvinyoung

Gaby said:

ezpeezy said:

jasonfj said:

By omission, the headline suggests the Pro models do support mmWave 5G outside of the US...?

@jasonfj - No iPhone 12 model will support 5G mmWave outside the US at launch. The spectrum has not been negotiated / allocated in other countries yet. The headline is worded that way because it was previously speculated that only Pro models would support 5G mmWave, but worldwide. Instead, all iPhone 12 models support 5G mmWave, but only in the US.

larryjw said:

Apple certainly pushed the 5G. 

Is there an effort to limit the far faster Wi-Fi? Why would any consumer want to pay the exorbitant cellular data rates?

@larryjw - Of course there is no 'effort' to limit Wi-Fi.  There are 2 incorrect assumptions in your question. For many people Wi-Fi is not always 'far faster', either due to where they live or because they don't work in a traditional office. If Wi-Fi is slow it is almost certainly due to the network, not the phone. Your other incorrect assumption is depending on where people live, cellular data rates are often not 'exorbitant' as you say.

As 5G becomes more prevalent and is able to more easily handle large amounts of users, it could certainly fully replace WiFi in many parts of the world. Also, 5G offers much higher security and privacy versus using public WiFi networks.

It is understandable that different countries are utilising varying bandwidths for different purposes and that in time things will likely improve but what I don’t appreciate is that the actual hardware itself is crippled for people outside the USA. If they are indeed creating different models completely omitting the mmWave radios/antennae then this is what I disagree with. Who is to say that 6 months down the line the UK for example opens up that frequency to support 5G. Without the hardware being capable we are left behind. Or I decide to move abroad to another territory that Supoorts it?! I hope this is a misunderstanding, or they should discount the models and they certainly should have specified at the launch because I imagine that would be a disappointment to many people. Personally I see little use for it and I’ve certainly no interest at this point particularly if the networks increase the service charge. But on principle I disagree. 

I totally understand where you're coming from. I travel to the UK, so I was researching band coverage there last night. I'm glad I'll be buying the US version, though I'm skeptical at how often I'll be in coverage zones for mmWave within the lifespan of this phone (and I tend to keep mine for 3-4 years at a time). But spectrum allocations do move slowly. I know the UK Ofcom auction dates for the 700mhz spectrum are sometime next year. I can't imagine that this will be an overnight deployment in most markets.