San Francisco: Taking its legal battle with chipmaking giant Qualcomm to the next level, Apple has claimed it wanted to use Qualcomm modems in its 2018's iPhone models but the chip maker refused to sell them after being sued by the iPhone maker over its licensing practices.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accused Qualcomm of operating a monopoly in wireless chips, forcing companies such as Apple to work with it exclusively and charging excessive licensing fees for its technology.