iPhone 5 eyed by T-Mobile USA

The company’s CEO Philipp Humm has acknowledged that the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) hurdle is an important reason for the carrier’s lack of the device.

“We’ve been pretty clear that we’re interested in having [the iPhone],” Philipp Humm said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), according to Forbes. “Not having it is clearly negative on churn [subscriber loss].”

“There were issues in the past about not being able to add [support for T-Mobile's] AWS spectrum to [the iPhone's] chipsets,” he explained.

In order to take advantage of T-Mobile, Apple would have to create custom hardware just for their network.

However, in an interview with CNET, Humm revealed that Apple’s next chipset will offer support for AWS.

“The next chipset will support AWS,” he said. “The challenge that existed in the past will go away.”

4G LTE technology, which runs at least partly on AWS spectrum, is likely to be featured on the next-gen iPhone.

The company is reportedly looking for ways to raise money for such an investment.

In this sense, Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray told Reuters that T-Mobile USA is taking into account selling its wireless broadcast towers.

“We’re looking at that as an option right now to see if it makes sense,” he said at a T-Mobile press event. “That’s still an option. WE believe the market is still as strong as it was.”