Apple C1, first in-house 5G iPhone modem

Continuing the discussion about Apple’s own mobile chipset from the latter part of the “4G/5G Connection” thread in the Mobile Broadband sub-forum

In its first big move away from Qualcomm and after more than 6 years of gestation…

Apple reveals C1, its first in-house 5G iPhone modem, replacing Qualcomm

High-level specs from Apple are here (scroll down to Mobile & Wireless) and here (scroll down to iPhone 16e, Model A3409)

5G Bands
n1 (2100 MHz)
n2 (1900 MHz)
n3 (1800 MHz)
n5 (850 MHz)
n7 (2600 MHz)
n8 (900 MHz)
n12 (700 MHz)
n20 (800 DD)
n25 (1900 MHz)
n26 (800 MHz)
n28 (700 APT)
n30 (2300 MHz)
n38 (TD 2600)
n40 (TD 2300)
n41 (TD 2500)
n48 (TD 3600)
n53 (TD 2500)
n66 (AWS-3)
n70 (AWS-4)
n75 (SDL 1500)
n76 (SDL 1500)
n77 (TD 3700)
n78 (TD 3500)
n79 (TD 4700)

LTE Bands
1 (2100 MHz)
2 (1900 MHz)
3 (1800 MHz)
4 (AWS)
5 (850 MHz)
7 (2600 MHz)
8 (900 MHz)
12 (700 MHz)
13 (700c MHz)
17 (700b MHz)
18 (800 MHz)
19 (800 MHz)
20 (800 DD)
25 (1900 MHz)
26 (800 MHz)
28 (700 APT)
30 (2300 MHz)
32 (1500 L-band)
34 (TD 2000)
38 (TD 2600)
39 (TD 1900)
40 (TD 2300)
41 (TD 2500)
42 (TD 3500)
48 (TD 3600)
53 (TD 2500)
66 (AWS-3)

Edited by Pheasant (Thu 20-Feb-25 11:08:39)

Charles Arthur - who is generally an astute observer - said that the manner of this release didn't exactly suggest confidence.

I reckon it is quite sensible - use the "budget phone", whose users are less likely to absolutely cane it, as a test bed.

Never heard of him. Don’t really know what the manner of the release means either. 😅

I guess the proof will be in the pudding, but deploying it on what was the SE phone range sounds like a decent approach, until they’ve had some real world feedback. It is just the first iteration. Could be great. Could be rubbish…

He's worth a follow - succeeded Jack Schofield at the Graun and made their tech coverage better overnight. Freelance now. Does the Overspill newsletter, with is always an interesting read.

It will be really interesting to see what Apple have come up with here. They’ve had 6 years, over 2000 former Intel employees (a good move for them in hindsight given Intel’s subsequent implosion) and a bunch of IP as a starter for ten.

I think given that it has taken Apple this long, this silicon won’t be a total dud. At the same time, it probably won’t be completely matching the premium features and capabilities in Qualcomm’s silicon.

But you never know. M1 was 💩hot right out of the box. Apple H1 (AirPods) and S1 (watch) silicon wasn’t too shabby either. All have have been refined extremely well in successive generations.

Link to the original Apple press release from July 2019
https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2019/07/apple-to-a...

Not really what I would call a budget phone and just because a phone is budget don't mean the users won't as you put Cane it

As for the modem, good for Apple,, i hope it works out as well as Apple Silicon did in the Macs, as long as it works.

True enough, although I suspect Apple has all the usage data it needs, classified by everything from phone model to inside leg measurement of the user.

In reply to a post by ian_c:

Charles Arthur - who is generally an astute observer - said that the manner of this release didn't exactly suggest confidence.

He may just be re-iterating Mark Gurman at Bloomberg who said in early January the next "entry level phone" will have Apple's own modem chip, and it will likely also be used in the next entry level cellular iPad... as this will let Apple prove the chip and software on a smaller user community than say the next flagship release in Sept.

The US apple press go on about it not supporting mmWave but the USA is the only country that has mmWave anyway..!

Perhaps not realistic (or necessary) to include mmWave in the very first release? That could be something they plan to release subsequently...

The original iPhone didn't get 3G until the second iteration a year after the original made it debut for example.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Perhaps not realistic (or necessary) to include mmWave in the very first release? That could be something they plan to release subsequently...

Exactly, at 28 GHz or so it has to be much more complicated than the rest of the sub 6 GHz bands, plus minimal usage. Best to debug at large scale with worldwide bands.

The original iPhone didn't get 3G until the second iteration a year after the original made it debut for example.

Not a great example, as the US didn't have much 3G deployment, unlike Europe where we had the T-Mobile & Three combined MBNL platform that launched around the same time and started making really good progress by the time the 3GS launched in 2019, vastly overtaking Vodafone, Orange and O2.

It wasn't until the iPhone 5 that launched 4G/LTE for the USA that the rest of the world using DC-HSPA for the theoretical 42 Mbps was available on iPhone.

Edited by jchamier (Fri 21-Feb-25 14:06:27)