iPhone 12 May See 5G Connectivity Issues in the UK

[MacRumors]

The upcoming iPhone 12 may have serious issues connecting to 5G in the United Kingdom, reports The Telegraph.

The report cites "industry insiders" who say that iPhone 12 models may not support the 700MHz 5G band. Lower-spectrum bands such as 700MHz are crucial to 5G coverage since they are far-reaching and penetrate well through walls and buildings, and 700MHz is expected to be the most common form of 5G in the UK.

"If it doesn't support 700MHz then you end up with coverage problems," said principal analyst at Assembly, Matthew Howett. "The spectrum bands that the iPhone works on are crucially important."

If the iPhone 12 does not support the 700MHz 5G band, it will likely result in carrier Three being afforded a major advantage in the UK market. Three has acquired large amounts of the 5G spectrum, so it would be better able to handle a lack of 700MHz support by using a range of other bands.

The situation may be similar to the launch of the iPhone 5 in 2012, when EE was the only telecoms operator with enough coverage to reliably offer the latest connectivity in the UK. It now appears that Three could be the only operator with enough 5G coverage for the iPhone 12.

If the 700MHz band does turn out to be supported by the iPhone 12, British customers will not be able to use the band as it has not yet been acquired by an operator. The 700MHz band is set to be auctioned to telecoms operators by Ofcom in early 2021.

The iPhone 12 lineup is almost certain to appear on Tuesday at Apple's "Hi, Speed" event, where more specific details about 5G spectrum support will likely emerge.

Article Link: iPhone 12 May See 5G Connectivity Issues in the UK

 

[markfc]

North Wales here...still mainly GPRS and 3G so I won’t lose too much sleep over this.

 

[goobot]

5g coverage for the next year will be so insignificant that if it is the only reason you are buying the new phone you are better off waiting till next year when there are more bands supported and the modem is more efficient.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

I thought EE had 5G coverage across a lot of the UK

 

[guitarpanda]

I assume this problem wouldn't be just for the UK. I'm curious as to why Apple would choose to not support this 700MHz band if it's so important?

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Join the club.
I’m getting the 12 Mini, and the closest 5G spot is like nine or 10 hours from where I live.
It’s good that 4G LTE will still work perfectly on this iPhone, so it’s not really that much of a handicap.
Also, it’s funny that when 5G rumors about this iPhone started to come out last year, the rebuttal was that 5G was barely available anywhere, so it doesn’t really matter.
One year later, and that is still true. 5G is barely available anywhere

 

[ArPe]

5G has very low coverage in most cities anyway. Anyone with a 5G phone will mostly be connecting with 4G for a year or so.

 

[KrisLord]

This doesn’t make a lot of sense.

it’s critical that the iPhone supports 700mhz for UK users.​

700mhz isn’t allocated to any network in the UK.​

how can both of these statements be true?

 

[dannyyankou]

I thought EE had 5G coverage across a lot of the UK

Yeah but that's not the issue. The issue is that the iPhone 12 will support 600mhz 5g, but can't be used in the UK because they use 700mhz.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

North Wales here...still mainly GPRS and 3G so I won’t lose too much sleep over this.

I remember when the iPhone 5 came out, and people made a huge, huge deal that the iPhone finally had 4G.
I bought the iPhone five the first day it came out, September 21, 2012.
I never, ever saw the 3G logo switch to LTE until about 10 months later, in July 2013, when I was on vacation out of state.
I didn’t see constant 4G LTE speeds until about early 2015, when I had already moved away from that iPhone 5 to the iPhone 6+.

 

[dannyyankou]

This doesn’t make a lot of sense.

​

it’s critical that the iPhone supports 700mhz for UK users.​

​

700mhz isn’t allocated to any network in the UK.​

how can both of these statements be true?

Yet. It will be auctioned in early 2021, as per the article.

 

[jz0309]

I think most people, whether UK or the US or any other country for that matter will not be able to get benefit of 5G for quite some time, in some cases years.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

It’s going to take some time for the 5G to deploy.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

LOL at this!

5GE: AT&T's Misleading Label on iPhone

After upgrading to iOS 12.2, the newest version of iOS, AT&T users began seeing a "5GE" icon in place of "LTE" for their cellular...

www.macrumors.com

 

[alexandr]

i remember always reading into the different bands different models have, and figuring out which will work best for me... i really wish they would just make one model that would work flawlessly everywhere... i'm sure there is a reason as to why they don't, but still...

 

[Bakey]

Didn't we, as in the UK, have a similar issue with iPhone's and 4G when they / it was released too? It does seem to a ring bell or two...

 

[Agit21]

So you pay top Euros and get this bs from Apple?
Hello Nexus 5 with full 5g and mmwave support!

 

[PJWilkin]

5G itself is limited to cities
and Frequency Range 2 is so flakey as to be of no use in rain, fog, even leaves falling can affect it

Frequency Range 1 is more like LTE

and that coverage is poor in some parts of the UK

As for 5G phone plans .....

 

[havenyoung]

TL;DR
An unannounced product with unconfirmed spec might not work with a network band that has yet to be auctioned.

 

[FriedEngineer]

The upcoming iPhone 12 may have serious issues connecting to 5G in the United Kingdom

also:

The 700MHz band is set to be auctioned to telecoms operators by Ofcom in early 2021.

So let me get this straight; you're upset that a soon to be released device won't support a band that no telecom currently supports, or can even think about supporting in the UK until sometime next year...This seems to me to be a hilariously pointless article.

 

[anthdci]

'reports telegraph'

stopped reading and came straight to comments to make sure everyone knows it

 

[twistedpixel8]

Not bothered at all. My 4G coverage is great and so are speeds. I don’t need 5G. It’s not like I’m watching 4K movies while I’m out and about.

 

[twistedpixel8]

'reports telegraph'

stopped reading and came straight to comments to make sure everyone knows it

Why is this important? Isn’t it a reasonably well respected UK news publication?

 

[jlwarlow]

So either pick Three with no visual voicemail or stick with 4G on EE, O2 or Sky and keep visual voicemail. Speed is nice but I’d miss voicemail more.

 

[twistedpixel8]

also:



So let me get this straight; you're upset that a soon to be released device won't support a band that no telecom currently supports, or can even think about supporting in the UK until sometime next yet...This seems to me to be a hilariously pointless article.

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