Apple appears to be working on 6G already

Apple has posted some job offerings online in which the company indicates that it is looking for people who can contribute to the development of a 6G network. In this way, the company seems to want to become less dependent on Qualcomm.

The two vacancies were noticed by Bloomberg. The website writes that the vacancies are for positions in the Apple offices in San Diego and Silicon Valley. In San Diego, the company is looking for a ‘Wireless Research Systems Engineer – 5G/6G‘, in Cupertino, Apple needs a ‘RAN1/RAN4 Standards Engineer‘.

In the San Diego job posting, Apple is asking the applicant to help “deliver system design of next generation groundbreaking radio access networks”. The job posting specifically mentions 6G as one of the technologies the applicant would be working on.

The person hired in the Cupertino vacancy will be part of the team working on 5G standards. The applicant will be helping to make technical contributions to the 4G and 5G specifications. Research into “next generation standards like 6G” is also mentioned in this job posting.

No longer dependent on Qualcomm

Apple is looking for experts in the field of 5G and 6G, as the first iPhone with 5G support only just came out a few months ago. For that, however, the company uses a modem from Qualcomm.

However, Apple is clearly focusing more and more on designing its own hardware, as it has been doing for ten years with the SoCs for its smartphones and more recently with the new M1 processor for computers. Presumably, the company will also initially focus on developing its own 5G modem, which will make it independent of Qualcomm.

Next G Alliance

Last year, Apple, along with other companies such as LG and Google, became part of the so-called ‘Next G Alliance’. The companies want to lay the foundations for the technology that will succeed 5G. However, the development of this technology is still at a very early stage and it will probably be many years before it can be found in consumer equipment.

Tip: Review: Apple iPhone 12 Pro, great phone, but not that ‘pro’