Apple is generally known as a company that largely likes to rely on itself for both hardware and software, which is why they design their own phones, their own chipsets used in their own phones, their own software that runs their phones and their computers, and so on. This is why it never really surprised us to hear that they might want to make their own modems.
We’ve been hearing such rumors for a couple of years now, and a recent report from The Information (paywall; via Cult of Mac) seemingly confirms that as they discovered a job listing that hints at Apple’s plans. The job listing calls for a cellular modem systems architect who will work on “modem systems architecture aspects for the L1/physical layer”.
When exactly this modem will debut is anyone’s guess, but right now for the most part Apple is relying on Intel for their modems, although last we heard Apple might want to end that relationship when it comes to adopting 5G. We have heard reports that claim Apple will wait until 2020 to launch their own 5G iPhones, but whether or not that is to simply wait for the tech to stabilize or to wait until their own modems are ready is unclear, so we’ll just have to wait and see, but until then take these reports with a grain of salt for now.