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Will (can) the iPhone 5 LTE Be a "World" Phone

Blorzoga

Blorzoga

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 21, 2010
2,560
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I don't know much about cellular technology so I was wondering if the new iPhone, assuming it will be LTE, will be able to access LTE networks worldwide or will the LTE be region-specific like the iPad 3. Does the technology exist that would make it possible?
 
In all likelihood it will be region specific unless they implement a hexaband LTE radio.
 
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I don't expect "world LTE" capabilities to be too much of a concern for the average consumer during the life cycle of this phone. I certainly could be wrong if the carriers around the world light fires under their a**es and get their networks built out quickly.
 
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By October time a lot of European carriers will have LTE rolled out on the 850mhz and 2.6ghz bands. A few (Like tmobile and orange uk) on the 1800mhz band. There would be way too many bands to support all world carriers. Version and AT&T and sprint are all different. We're talking maybe 7 (not sure if Sprints will be different to Verizon) bands. Not a chance in hell of a LTE world phone although I imagine the CDMA iPhone will still be compatible with gsm and 3G networks
 
I don't know if it's technically feasible to make a "world LTE" phone right now. If we're lucky, Apple will make one version for the US, and another for the rest of the world with the ROW frequencies.
 
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