Faster mmWave 5G Still Limited to U.S. iPhone 16 Models

[MacRumors]

Apple today introduced the new iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max models, but the update has not expanded mmWave 5G to countries outside of the United States. All four iPhone 16 models offer mmWave 5G in the U.S., but other countries are still limited to sub-6GHz 5G.

mmWave 5G has been a United States exclusive since 5G technology first debuted in the iPhone 12 as an upgrade for LTE. Apple hasn't rolled out mmWave 5G in other countries because other countries largely have yet to widely adopt the faster speeds. There are mmWave networks in countries like Australia, China, and Japan, but it is not a standard that has been fully embraced. In Australia, for example, mmWave is only available in select areas of major cities like Melbourne and Sydney.

While mmWave technology offers the fastest 5G speeds, it is limited to urban areas due to its short range and inability to penetrate obstacles. Sub-6GHz 5G is much more widespread, even in the United States, because it can also be used in rural and suburban areas.

It is worth noting that Apple replaced the mmWave antenna on the iPhone 16 models in the United States with the Camera Control button. There is no obvious mmWave cutout anymore, with the antenna instead built into the iPhone's frame.

Other countries do not have a mmWave antenna at all, and instead have a physical SIM slot, a feature that no longer exists in the U.S.

Article Link: Faster mmWave 5G Still Limited to U.S. iPhone 16 Models

 

[BC2009]

They probably cannot do the faster mmWave in the EU without running afoul of the DMA and facing hefty fines -- it seems everything is upsetting EU regulators, so why not this?

 

[smithrh]

This is a very very niche technology that has an extremely limited rollout.

No one should have FOMO over this.

 

[contacos]

5G is not even fully embraced here in Germany, most of the time you hardly get LTE speed because the speed actually depends on your contract. It’s a huge mess. I think my 5G is limited to 50 mbits and only because I pay for an „upgrade“ from the standard 25 mbits

 

[kyjaotkb]

I’m in London and I get reliably faster speeds with 4G than with 5G. And much better battery life. I’ve been using my 15 Pro for about a year with 5G mostly turned off. Had to turn it on in NYC though!

 

[arthurgd3]

mmWave 5G is completely overhyped and mostly pointless since it has such a limited scenario where it works well. sub6 5G as I have with T-Mobile here in the US, there are places where I am comfortably getting over 1Gbps down on my Pixel 8 Pro and about 150Mbps up so it isn't slow by any means.

 

[grantishere]

Maybe we’ll get GTA on iPhone before mmWaves in 3rd world countries

 

[waquzy]

They probably cannot do the faster mmWave in the EU without running afoul of the DMA and facing hefty fines -- it seems everything is upsetting EU regulators, so why not this?

Good f*** the EU and their stupid laws.

 

[Dr McKay]

I get this in my home town without mmwave I think I'll survive.

 

[suchnerve]

Chicken and egg situation.

mmWave’s range should be thought of as being like really good Wi-Fi, rather than being compared to sub-6 cellular. Its several hundred feet of propagation distance is plenty for achieving broad urban coverage, if actually deployed on all existing sites.

Most of mmWave’s perceived coverage issues are just because it isn’t fully deployed. Of course the connection is gonna drop if not all the sites around you have it.

It’s all worth it for the congestion resistance. mmWave has so much capacity that it’s nearly impossible to congest to the point of unusability. You could be in a dense crowd of people all using their phones, and mmWave would still work just fine.

 

[bradman83]

Chicken and egg situation.

mmWave’s range should be thought of as being like really good Wi-Fi, rather than being compared to sub-6 cellular. Its several hundred feet of propagation distance is plenty for achieving broad urban coverage, if actually deployed on all existing sites.

Most of mmWave’s perceived coverage issues are just because it isn’t fully deployed. Of course the connection is gonna drop if not all the sites around you have it.

It’s all worth it for the congestion resistance. mmWave has so much capacity that it’s nearly impossible to congest to the point of unusability. You could be in a dense crowd of people all using their phones, and mmWave would still work just fine.

This is a great summary. mmWave is handy to have for event venues or other places where people routinely gather and max out even C-band cellular. I don't sense that much is lost by it not being included given the limited applicability.

 

[james2538]

Chicken and egg situation.

mmWave’s range should be thought of as being like really good Wi-Fi, rather than being compared to sub-6 cellular. Its several hundred feet of propagation distance is plenty for achieving broad urban coverage, if actually deployed on all existing sites.

Most of mmWave’s perceived coverage issues are just because it isn’t fully deployed. Of course the connection is gonna drop if not all the sites around you have it.

It’s all worth it for the congestion resistance. mmWave has so much capacity that it’s nearly impossible to congest to the point of unusability. You could be in a dense crowd of people all using their phones, and mmWave would still work just fine.

Ya, it seems mmWave biggest use case would be like stadiums. Any place where you have a lot of people gathered together.

 

[Regret]

I didn’t even notice the cutout was missing, I just assumed it was on the other side.

 

[iGeek2019]

If they had rolled out mmWave here in the UK you can bet EE would charge a premium to access it like they are with their roll out of 5G SA 😂

 

[Chuckeee]

So where is the mm antenna on the iPhone 16 since its previous placement was replaced with the camera control button? Somewhere under the rear glass?

 

[Böhme417]

mmWave seems to be disappearing. Previously, I had been able to get speeds of 4 Gbps, but I have seen nothing near that in the same locations now.

 

[dlewis23]

You are not really missing out on much by not having mmWave, I am seeing much faster speeds 5G speeds all around lately. Over 250 Mbps is very common. I see this very often on T-Mobile now.

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[LegendaryAced]

At this point the lack of mmWave support outside USA is just disgusting behaviour.

Not only mmWave has rolled out in a few countries for several years now (see Japan and Australia), but they are limiting the ability to travel abroad and use mmWave services. When I travelled to New York with an international iPhone 15 Pro Max I suffered with how slow everything was. While my friend with an iPhone 13 Pro Max was receiving gigabit. The issue was not due to roaming, because I also had a local SIM with my international iPhone and had similar results.

On top of all this, it is a chicken and egg situation. Do you think providers in Japan and Australia do not want to sell iPhones with mmWave support? Apple is denying it. Same with European networks that have done test deployments.

 

[dlewis23]

At this point the lack of mmWave support outside USA is just disgusting behaviour.

Not only mmWave has rolled out in a few countries for several years now (see Japan and Australia), but they are limiting the ability to travel abroad and use mmWave services. When I travelled to New York with an international iPhone 15 Pro Max I suffered with how slow everything was. While my friend with an iPhone 13 Pro Max was receiving gigabit. The issue was not due to roaming, because I also had a local SIM with my international iPhone and has similar results.

On top of all this, it is a chicken and egg situation. Do you think providers in Japan and Australia do not want to sell iPhones with mmWave support? Apple is denying it. Same with European networks that have done test deployments.

Not having mmWave support on your iPhone is not the reason why you did not see those speeds on your iPhone. If your friend was actually connected to mmWave the speeds would be 2.5+ Gbps. Your plan was not allowing you to use the faster 5G (Sub 6Ghz) bands here in the US.

 

[LegendaryAced]

Not having mmWave support on your iPhone is not the reason why you did not see those speeds on your iPhone. If your friend was actually connected to mmWave the speeds would be 2.5+ Gbps. Your plan was not allowing you to use the faster 5G (Sub 6Ghz) bands here in the US.

My friend with an mmWave iPhone was receiving gigabit minimum. It was close to 2Gbps on several tests we did.

My international iPhone was receiving less than 10Mbps. My roaming plan does not have a limit. And the local SIM that I used (see my original message), had mmWave support and uncapped speeds which I had confirmed with the carrier. Obviously, my international iPhone would not be able to connect to mmWave, but it would have been able to take advantage of the maximum available speeds on sub 6GHz (NR). And it did. It was under 10Mbps in most occasions in New York - Manhattan.

 

[platinumaqua]

mmWave is a dud even in the US, so they're not missing much

 

[JPack]

mmWave isn't needed even for stadiums in Asia. This can solved by installing more mid-band base stations.

In general, mmW isn't commercially viable, which is why you don't see it deployed to any scale outside the U.S. The U.S. only adopted mmW because of geopolitical reasons, not technical.

According to Apple, mid-band 5G can deliver up to 3.5 Gbps while mmW up to 4 Gbps. So who needs mmW?

 

[Kiwidevdude]

mmWave in Australia is in more cities than Melbourne and Sydney.

The networks stop rolling it out because THERE ARE NO PHONES there's like two google pixels and a few modems

 

[verdi1987]

mmWave is a dud even in the US, so they're not missing much

It’s great for those of us in mmWave areas. That said, they’ve mostly stopped expansion outside of high-density locations like stadia in favor of sub-6 GHz.

 

[verdi1987]

They probably cannot do the faster mmWave in the EU without running afoul of the DMA and facing hefty fines -- it seems everything is upsetting EU regulators, so why not this?

What would be the regulatory issue with mmWave?