Apple has completed its purchase of the "majority" of Intel’s smartphone modem business, Intel has revealed.

The sale, which was announced in July, is reportedly valued at around $1 billion. It will eventually allow Apple to use its own, in-house mobile modems - rather than rely on third parties like Qualcomm for such components. Only Intel's smartphone modem business is included in the sale. Intel, the company, still independently exists and continues to manufacturer modems for PCs and autonomous vehicles.

In April 2019, Intel first announced it planned to exit the mobile modem business. Shortly before that, Apple reached a settlement with Qualcomm, allowing Apple to return to using Qualcomm’s modems. Intel later said it dropped its smartphone modem business because of the settlement. It even claimed Qualcomm was acting anti-competitively and forcing the sale of its smartphone modem business to Apple.

According to Reuters, Intel said in a court filing that it sold its business to Apple at “a multi-billion dollar loss". Besides Intel's smartphone modem business, Apple also acquired 2,200 Intel employees, as well as unspecified intellectual property and equipment. 

Apple’s in-house modems aren't expected to be ready for three years.