Weekly Wrap: Apple’s new iPhone restricts mmWave support to the US

This is not the first time that Apple has decided to restrict the 26 GHz band to a US variant of an iPhone or a more expensive model.

Last September, Apple announced the iPhone Air, a thinner version of the device that dropped support for the 26 GHz and 40 GHz mmWave bands.

The iPhone 16e, a cheaper variant of the iPhone 16 announced in 2025, also dropped support for these bands.

While the foldable iPhone Duo will keep mmWave functionality on account of the Apple N1 chip, which enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and “improvements to cellular quality”, it only supports mmWave in the US.

Apple still refuses to support mmWave bands in its international models, even though mmWave spectrum has been assigned in the UK, Germany, Spain, Greece and Norway – as well as in Asia (China, Thailand, Malaysia) and Australia.

However, there have been very few mmWave deployments, and other handset manufacturers are not supporting it in their devices.

It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. Operators are reluctant to roll out mmWave infrastructure when handsets don’t support mmWave, and device makers are reluctant to support mmWave spectrum when the network infrastructure isn’t there.

There has been a slow unravelling of mmWave support in recent months. New Zealand delayed assignments of 26 GHz and 28 GHz bands until 2028-2030, while Poland, Belgium and Iceland have paused their mmWave work due to a perceived lack of demand.

And despite a relatively successful auction, the UK still doesn’t seem to have used the spectrum. Maybe Apple’s decision makes commercial sense, but if mmWave support remains restricted to US devices, the infrastructure in other parts of the world may never be built.

Here is what else PolicyTracker reported on this week:

• Mexico has launched a new tender for the design and commissioning of a 5G rail connectivity network
• Russia’s regulator has assigned spectrum for 5G without an auction
• The FCC approved a prototype “mirror satellite” constellation despite opposition from astronomers, scientists and the public
• A new paper explores the dynamic elements that can be considered when calculating the price of spectrum
• Regulators from Senegal, Namibia and Tunisia told an industry event that Africa cannot wait to finish deploying 4G and 5G before engaging with global 6G discussions