It's being reported today that Qualcomm, the largest maker of mobile phone chips, said "it has produced a breakthrough in antennas for smartphones that means fifth generation, or 5G, services can be rolled out as planned and will deliver a surge in data download speeds. Qualcomm has provided production samples to customers and expects phones with the chips to hit the market early in 2019.

Current phone antennas aren't capable of tapping higher frequency radio bands that will allow the new services and devices to deliver a flood of information. Qualcomm said it has manufactured the first antenna module that will access millimeter wave signals," a technology Apple has 4 patent filings on.

With Intel out of the running for Apple's 5G modems business in the short term, it remains unclear which set of suppliers Apple will choose for their 5G ready iPhones in the future.  For more on this read the full Bloomberg  report.  For the technical side of things, check out Qualcomm's press release here.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.