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iPhoneTech

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 26, 2013
15
0
After what seems like an eternity, T-Mobile is finally getting onto the iPhone bandwagon as announced by the company earlier this week. If you can’t wait until next month for your T-Mobile iPhone 5, then you’re in luck, because thanks to a handy little jailbreak mod, you can get T-Mobile’s shiny new LTE hotness on your iPhone 5, right now.

In order for this to work, you’ll obviously need an iPhone 5 that’s jailbroken, but that’s not the end of the list of prerequisites. That iPhone 5 will need to be either of the unlocked variety, or an AT&T model. Verizon’s iPhone 5 does not feature the required hardware. If you’ve got the right iPhone in front of you though, and you’re jailbroken (of course), then here’s what you’ll need to do to use LTE on T-Mobile’s network with an iPhone 5.


Step 1: As mentioned above, you will need a jailbroken iPhone 5 to get this to work. Launch Cydia from your iPhone’s home screen and add the following repository to Cydia – you’ll need this in order to download the tweak. Tap ‘Manage,’ ‘Sources’ and then ‘Edit.’ Next, tap ‘Add.’ The repo lives at: http://v.backspace.jp/repo


iOS-Screenshot-20130329-010524-01.png


Step 2: Once added, let Cydia do its refreshing thing and then search for ‘CommCenter.’ Install it, and restart your iPhone.

Step 3: Re-launch Cydia. We need to install iFile.

Step 4: Search for iFile and install it. No need to restart your phone.

Step 5: Tap this link from your iPhone, and select ‘Open in iFile.’

Step 6: Once in iFile, tap ‘Unarchiver’ and and you’ll see files named carrier.plist, carrier. pri, overrides_N41_N42.plist and overrides_N41_N42.pri. Tap ‘Edit’ and select all these files.

Step 7: Tap the clipboard icon at the bottom of the screen and select ‘Cut’ from the options. Tap ‘Done.’

Step 8: Now you’ll want to tap the little house button (which is home!) and then tap ‘Library’. Now tap ‘Carrier Bundle.bundle’ followed by edit.

Step 9: Tap that clipboard icon again, and this time you’ll want to use the paste option.

Step 10: Now exit out of iFile and restart your iPhone. Almost done!

Step 11: Head into the Settings app once you’re connected to T-Mobile and turn on LTE. Job done!

It may look complicated, but it really isn’t, especially if you’re the kind of person that likes to play around with jailbreak tweaks anyway. It’ll certainly save you the time and money when buying a T-Mobile iPhone 5 with AWS support out of the box, but if you already own an unlocked iPhone 5, so it’s worth spending ten minutes of your time on making things work.

Good luck!

Source: RedmondPie
 

iPhoneTech

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 26, 2013
15
0
T-Mobile and Apple both have said that they will be releasing a software update for it my friend.
 

iTouch

macrumors 6502
Sep 12, 2007
427
47
I tried and it's a lot better for me at least. Went from 0.5M to 3.5M. Thanks.
 

Gregintosh

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2008
1,914
533
Chicago
LTE is different from AWS bands.

The software hack may enable LTE, but if you are not in a re-farmed area (and presumably if your area hasn't been refarmed it probably won't have LTE either) then you are still stuck on EDGE.

Only the T-Mobile iPhone/Updated iPhone will work with T-Mobile AWS bands.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,621
3,982
New Zealand
As far as I know... the existing model supports LTE at 1700 MHz (band 4), but is not currently enabled (it seems that the posted hack will enable it, as will an official update next month). The new hardware adds *WCDMA* at 1700, not LTE. LTE band 4 hardware is already there, according to the official specs.
 
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Jtludwig

macrumors 6502
Mar 24, 2012
419
310
it was announced that software wasn't enough for this

WRONG WRONG. Software isn't enough to allow HSPA functionality on the AWS bands. The AT&T/A1428 version already supports LTE on the AWS bands that tmobile is using.

"if you have a North American GSM version of the iPhone 5 — whether you bought it from AT&T or Apple or got it in from Canada – it can connect to T-Mobile’s new LTE network. It just has to be unlocked."
 
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kre62

macrumors 68020
Jul 12, 2010
2,373
1,248
Still cant believe there are people who dont get that AWS and LTE are different.

AWS = 3G

LTE = 4G (kinda)

Different techs.

Current iPhones cant do the fast 3G AWS that tMobile offers.
 

Diode

macrumors 68020
Apr 15, 2004
2,443
125
Washington DC
To clear up some confusion, AWS is the common name for the 1700 frequency. The current iPhone already supports LTE over AWS. What the new phone is for is 3G over AWS, which the current phone does NOT support.

T-Mobile's LTE is entirely over the AWS spectrum. Which causes some confusion because they also deploy 3G over the very same spectrum. They essentially split what they have between 3G and LTE (with plans to eventually have the AWS entirely LTE). Thus the current phone can connect to t-mobile's AWS LTE network but not the AWS 3G network.

This hack is needed because Apple only enables the LTE radio for approved carriers. IE Carriers that have an official, signed carrier bundle pre-loaded in the phone. Carrier bundles are the settings for each carrier, what their MMS settings are, if they allow tethering, facetime over 3G, if they have LTE etc.

As there is no official carrier bundle for T-Mobile, this hack disables the security check and allows you to load your own carrier bundle that enables the LTE radio. This will change when t-mobile/Apple release an official carrier bundle, but this hack will be needed in the meantime.
 
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