Intel's journey into 5G may be coming to an end... again. According to a new report by Ian Cutress in the More than Moore newsletter, Intel is set to exit the 5G business, and the WWAN business as a whole, in the next few years, with 5G seemingly coming to an end first.

As you may recall, Intel was forced to sell its 5G modem business to Apple in 2019 due to lack of profitability, but the company soon announced a partnership with MediaTek to create 5G modems for laptops and PCs. Those made their debut in 2021, but it looks like Intel is now giving up on the development of 5G solutions as it tries to cut off less profitable parts of its business. According to the report, Intel will be transferring the technology over to MediaTek and Fibocom so that the two companies can continue developing and supporting the technology. The technology transfer is expected to be done by the end of May, with Intel leaving the 5G market completely by July.

But 5G isn't the only part of Intel's cellular business, as the company has also been making 4G LTE modems in partnership with Fibocom, a business that was maintained even throughout the tumultuous 5G journey. This will take a while longer, but Intel is preparing to sunset its 4G products, and the last shipments are expected to be made by the end of 2025, depending on orders from partners.

While Intel is set to stop all research and development in the WWAN market, this doesn't affect other aspects of connectivity. Intel will continue working on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modems, in addition to developing the Thunderbolt protocol, which is set to get a major upgrade in the near future with Thunderbolt 5.

We've reached out to Intel for comment and will update this article if we hear back from the company.

Source: More than Moore