I'll be the first one to detract Apple when presented the opportunity, but I seriously doubt this is their fault. Trying to squeeze utility out of 5G internet is like getting blood from a stone, I don't find it hard to believe that Apple got to the end, had a perfectly servicable product but scrapped it simply because there was no real reason to build it themselves yet.

It certainly sounds that way, at least. Maybe this will finally put those insane "satellite modem" theories to bed, though. I always suspected that was a piece of misunderstood/mistranslated insider-info.

Mobile chips and protocol stacks are hard. The complexity has increased with each generation and the number of suppliers has drastically decreased. Barriers to entry are huge.