iPhone 12 May See 5G Connectivity Issues in the UK

The upcoming iPhone 12 may have serious issues connecting to 5G in the United Kingdom, reports The Telegraph.

iPhone 12 5G New 1

The report cites "industry insiders" who say that ‌iPhone‌ 12 models may not support the 700MHz 5G band. Lower-spectrum bands such as 700MHz are crucial to 5G coverage since they are far-reaching and penetrate well through walls and buildings, and 700MHz is expected to be the most common form of 5G in the UK.

"If it doesn't support 700MHz then you end up with coverage problems," said principal analyst at Assembly, Matthew Howett. "The spectrum bands that the iPhone works on are crucially important."

If the ‌iPhone‌ 12 does not support the 700MHz 5G band, it will likely result in carrier Three being afforded a major advantage in the UK market. Three has acquired large amounts of the 5G spectrum, so it would be better able to handle a lack of 700MHz support by using a range of other bands.

The situation may be similar to the launch of the ‌iPhone‌ 5 in 2012, when EE was the only telecoms operator with enough coverage to reliably offer the latest connectivity in the UK. It now appears that Three could be the only operator with enough 5G coverage for the ‌iPhone‌ 12.

If the 700MHz band does turn out to be supported by the ‌iPhone‌ 12, British customers will not be able to use the band as it has not yet been acquired by an operator. The 700MHz band is set to be auctioned to telecoms operators by Ofcom in early 2021.

The ‌iPhone‌ 12 lineup is almost certain to appear on Tuesday at Apple's "Hi, Speed" event, where more specific details about 5G spectrum support will likely emerge.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

markfc Avatar
61 months ago
North Wales here...still mainly GPRS and 3G so I won’t lose too much sleep over this.
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
havenyoung Avatar
61 months ago
TL;DR
An unannounced product with unconfirmed spec might not work with a network band that has yet to be auctioned.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
goobot Avatar
61 months ago
5g coverage for the next year will be so insignificant that if it is the only reason you are buying the new phone you are better off waiting till next year when there are more bands supported and the modem is more efficient.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KrisLord Avatar
61 months ago
This doesn’t make a lot of sense.

it’s critical that the iPhone supports 700mhz for UK users.

700mhz isn’t allocated to any network in the UK.

how can both of these statements be true?
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
twistedpixel8 Avatar
61 months ago
Not bothered at all. My 4G coverage is great and so are speeds. I don’t need 5G. It’s not like I’m watching 4K movies while I’m out and about.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FriedEngineer Avatar
61 months ago

The upcoming iPhone 12 may have serious issues connecting to 5G in the United Kingdom
also:

The 700MHz band is set to be auctioned to telecoms operators by Ofcom in early 2021.
So let me get this straight; you're upset that a soon to be released device won't support a band that no telecom currently supports, or can even think about supporting in the UK until sometime next year...This seems to me to be a hilariously pointless article.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)