The first serious problems with Apple’s self-designed 5G modem have appeared. One iPhone Air user has publicly announced that his phone has a hardware failure in the base station, which is why the device can no longer connect to the cellular network and is practically unusable for phone calls.
A user with the nickname itstheskylion posted on Reddit that his iPhone Air, which had been in a protective case all along and never dropped, suddenly lost its cellular signal. Otherwise, the iPhone Air is the first Apple phone to use its own C1X 5G modem, which represents an important step in the company’s attempt to free itself from dependence on Qualcomm solutions.
Problems with Apple’s C1X 5G modem
According to the user, after the loss of the signal, all standard procedures were tried: restarting the device, soft reset, as well as resetting the network settings. None of these methods were able to restore the mobile connection. The phone uses a dual-SIM configuration with two carriers, but neither card could connect to the network, ruling out the possibility of a carrier or specific network issue.
With further diagnostics, through the system menu for mobile service tests, the device clearly indicated a hardware failure on the C1X modem. This indicates that the problem is not of a software nature, but that the modem itself is physically damaged, which in practice means that the device is “bricked”.
Given that physical failures of base stations in modern smartphones are extremely rare, this case quickly attracted a lot of attention in the technology community. Of particular concern is the fact that this is a completely new, internal Apple solution that has yet to be proven in real use.
As of press time, Apple has not commented on the reported issue or made an official comment on the potential failures of the C1X 5G modem.