Good news for Apple. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the iPhone, clearing the way for the debut of Apple’s smartphone media player to hit retail stores. Apple expects to begin selling the iPhone 1G in late June 2007.
What The FCC Documents Reveal About The iPhone
Some of the FCC documents confirm a few features of the phone, including it will have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and will operate in the 1900 MHz and 850 MHz frequency bands.
That means that despite the phone’s high price, iPhone users won’t be able to roam with it into Europe, where operators use different frequencies. The phone uses GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology and the EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) wireless data standard. Apple has said the phone will ship initially only in the U.S. but many GSM phones today, even on the low end, are capable of operating in both Europe and the U.S.
Eager potential users who hoped for a faster data connection will be disappointed that the approval is only for EDGE. Many operators, including Apple partner AT&T, have upgraded their networks to deliver download speeds of about 500K bits per second or more, more than twice as fast as EDGE.
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