The approval by the Federal Communications Commission was expected. All device makers seeking to sell devices that operate on public airwaves require such approval.
The FCC documents showed that the device will have Bluetooth and Wifi, as expected, and will operate in the 1900MHz and 850MHz frequency bands. This means the phone won’t work in Europe, where different frequencies are used by operators.
There also was not much joy for users looking for fast data rates: the FCC’s approval was just for EDGE, or enhanced data rate for GSM evolution, data standard and not also for GSM, or global system for mobile communications, technology. Most GSM phones work in both the US and Europe.
As previously announced by Apple, a 4GB version of the phone will cost $499 with a two-year contract with AT&T, while an 8GB iPhone will cost $599.
Our View
The iPhone’s touch-screen design is gorgeous, but ambitious. And given that it won’t be able to roam between US and Europe, it’s an expensive proposition with the only real added benefit being it has a built-in iPod.
