iPad Submitted to Federal Communications Commission for Approval

[jedidove]

I wish the wifi one was A1337

 

[christian_k]

The point is still relevant for anyone who isn't confined to a single country.

People purchasing an iPad in the states and then expecting to use it when in Europe might be curious to know whether the approved model is limited to only those specs, or whether the specs are universal.

I have asked an engineer who has worked in the mobile phone industry for a long time. He told me, this is standard procedure with every international / multiband device.

When a triband GSM phone (900/1800/1900) is approved for Europe the European authorities (which are of course different from the FCC) only approve operation on 900 and 1800 MHz. Exactly the same device is approved by the FCC for the USA only on the 1900 MHz band.

GSM (and UMTS) devices only transmit anything when they have received a signal from a BTS on the same band. Because there is no 900 (or 1800) MHz network in the USA, a multiband handset will never transmit on that band in the US, so 900 (1800) MHz operation is "non existent" there. Only because of this behaveiur such a device is legal in the US at all, it is not allowed to transmit on 900 and 1800 so the FCC does not approve that. Even tough the device is capable of doing it (and it is legal) when you bring it to Europe.

Of course the same device will not transmit any signal on 1900 in Europe because there are no such networks, so it makes no sense to approve that in Europe.

Christian