IPhone Gets FCC Approval

- The iPhone is a GSM, dual band (GSM850 and GSM1900) phone with EDGE data capability and Bluetooth, 802.11g radios. There is no 3G cell data radio. We already knew this, but it doesn’t look like Apple is planning to pull any surprises in this first model.

- The iPhone passed the FCC tests for how much it irradiates your brain with no problems; it' won't fry anything. The maximum output of the iPhone was 0.394 watts in the GSM850 band, and 1.53 Watts in the GSM 1900 band. Again, that's pretty standard.

- The iPhone uses a patch antenna; similar to that used by most cell phones that have internal antennas. The documents that we've read don't describe where the antenna is.

- Apple refers to the iPhone with a model name of A1203. It isn’t clear what this means; it may be an internal name, or imply that there were previous designs called A1201 and A1202.

- The FCC label (which all phones must carry) won’t be a stick-on label like most phones, and it won’t be hidden under the battery. Instead, it will be laser etched onto the phone case itself.

- We don’t get to see the inside of the iPhone, or the user manual. Apple asked that the internal and external photos of the phone remain confidential, as well as the user manual and the photos of the phone itself being tested. Apple has asked these to remain confidential until the 30th of June; could this be the launch date for the iPhone?

[UPDATE: I described the iPhone above as a dual-band phone; It is actually a quad band phone that supports all four GSM bands. However, the FCC only mandates  tests on the bands that are used in the USA; the GSM850 and GSM1900 bands. The others (GSM900 and GSM1800) are used outside of the USA, and it seems the iPhone will support them as well, although they were not tested for the FCC submission. ]