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'iPhone 5' to Support 21 Mbps HSPA+ '4G' Technology

D.T. said:
Yeah, I imagine the big data consumers are mostly streaming video and/or music (the latter possibly all day).

OOC, do you watch video like that at home? Why not use WiFi? Do you commute?

Not trying to _stalk_ you or anything, just curious ... :)
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I like to watch at the gym - it motivates me to actually go. There's no wifi, though, which would make things so much better.
 
SAD*FACED*CLOWN said:
so why does Apple allow me to turn off my 3G signal if it goes against their "core philosophy"?
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It's the fact that you would need to turn the feature off in order to get a good experience on the Phone. You get good battery life now with 3G on or off. There is no way Apple will ship a phone that requires you to turn an option off in order to get good battery life--that is what is against their "core philosophy."
 
Chief Oddball said:
Thanks for posting your experience, as I had the same questions being a current unlimited plan holder. I do notice on AT&T's website that they have different plans for 4G data but they list the same prices as the 3G plans...for now.

As to this news, I was hoping that the iPhone 5 would have at least HSPA+ and would frankly be very surprised if it doesn't, since it seems trivial (based on what I know) to add support for it. LTE is a whole different animal, but given my limited use of 3G data in the first place I would rather stick with HSPA+ for now and get better battery life until LTE hardware has evolved further.
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No problem Chief :D Keep in mind that was several months back (when the Atrix was first released), but I'm assuming the options are the same, though carrier here is the US change their plans weekly it seems.

When I returned my Atrix, I just left the plan the same ("4G Unlimited"), so I should already be good to go for the next iPhone.

re: your second point, I agree 100%. The H+ will be a nice boost in speed without battery/packaging compromises. I also plan on staying with AT&T, even though in our very specific location here at the World HQ, Verizon is a touch better. Looks like the mix of H+, simultaneous voice+data on AT&T is going to be the better option (and more the most part, my service/data speeds are excellent here and my other common locations like NYC, DC, Pittsburgh)



JangoFett124 said:
I like to watch at the gym - it motivates me to actually go. There's no wifi, though, which would make things so much better.
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Oh OK, cool, yeah, I usually just load up my phone with local content for the gym, but it's usually just music. I think our Y actually has public WiFi access though, it's a really nice facility.
 
Yep, I never get above 4 Mbps and I check it quite frequently. My average is actually in 2's (DFW area) It would be nice to consistently get even 7Mbps. It's too bad that they get to classify this as "4G" and force people to upgrade out of their unlimited plans. I'm not too familiar with the networks and speeds but I recall reading that verizon couldn't take advantage of HSPA+ or something about it's 3G speed being slower, does anyone have any info on this? Reason being I was thinking about switching to verizon for the next iphone, because I'll be moving next year and dont know for certain whether AT&T or Verizon will be faster in that area.

pmz said:
Who cares? :confused::rolleyes:

Right now AT&T iPhones max out at about 3.5 - 5 Mbps.

21 Mbps HSPA+ will see real speeds of 10 Mbps.

I'll take it.
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Muad'Dib said:
jhall527 said:
You won't reach your cap faster just because speeds are faster
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That's incorrect. It depends on what the user is doing. If they are transferring files, they absolutely will. If they are streaming, then they may not.
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I don't understand why that is? If your average monthly actions total, say, 1 gig, why do faster speeds use more data to accomplish the same tasks?
 
dewski said:
i dont understand this. for example, buying a 8mb song on your phone, won't you just download it faster? its still going to be 8mb right?
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I know exactly what he means. Your browsing habits will naturally change ... like instead of waiting for a wi-fi connection, you get that song right here and now.
 
tido2012 said:
Yep, I never get above 4 Mbps and I check it quite frequently. My average is actually in 2's (DFW area) It would be nice to consistently get even 7Mbps. It's too bad that they get to classify this as "4G" and force people to upgrade out of their unlimited plans.
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This is all just speculation. We don't know for sure that AT&T will do this.

tido2012 said:
I'm not too familiar with the networks and speeds but I recall reading that verizon couldn't take advantage of HSPA+ or something about it's 3G speed being slower, does anyone have any info on this? Reason being I was thinking about switching to verizon for the next iphone, because I'll be moving next year and dont know for certain whether AT&T or Verizon will be faster in that area.
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Verizon uses CDMA not HSPA. The current revision of CDMA is a few years old and lags behind HSPA in speed. It averages 1Mbps. So you will notice a slowdown, especially if you are trying to stream data. It might be best to wait for an LTE iPhone before going to Verizon.
 
I'm not even thinking about the HSPA+ ... I'm still thinking about the placeholder. If they did not know what the next iPhone looked like... why even have an outline? And if they did outline... you would think it would be the same size as the rest.

That's a pretty specific outline (as far as sizing goes). Many won't agree... but it seems as if, they do have a stock image OR.. were given that outline. Usually a specific sized outline like that - with a question mark - comes from SOMEWHERE. I don't see them just taking an outline from rumors. That doesn't make sense.
 
jhall527 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8L1)



I don't understand why that is? If your average monthly actions total, say, 1 gig, why do faster speeds use more data to accomplish the same tasks?
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That's not what was asked. What was asked is if you would reach that 1GB faster....which you would. Will you use more? That depends on the user.
 
If HSPA+ is not 4G then LTE shouldn't be called 4G either because most current implementations of LTE in the real world are actually "slower" than HSPA+ and compared to CDMA "3G", it is effectively a generational jump. I might even go as far as stating that CDMA is not really 3G but rather 2.5 G when you consider its limitations and speed.

Give it up already, if CDMA can still be called "3G" then HSPA+ should be called at least 3.5G if not 4G.
 
msb3079 said:
I'm not even thinking about the HSPA+ ... I'm still thinking about the placeholder. If they did not know what the next iPhone looked like... why even have an outline? And if they did outline... you would think it would be the same size as the rest.

That's a pretty specific outline (as far as sizing goes). Many won't agree... but it seems as if, they do have a stock image OR.. were given that outline. Usually a specific sized outline like that - with a question mark - comes from SOMEWHERE. I don't see them just taking an outline from rumors. That doesn't make sense.
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I noticed that as well, but decided not to get my hopes up.
Maybe they are watching the rumour boards, but a professional company shouldn't do that and would most probably have a heads up/insider info for something like that?
 
Just called AT&T and confirmed. As long as you stay on a smart phone, unlimited data will grandfather in. Whether it be a 3G capable phone, or a 4G capable phone. I double checked with her, and even said if I upgrade to a 4G phone, I will still have unlimited data, and she said "Yes sir that is correct"... then I got the whole crock of nonsense they've been dishing out since Verizon got the iPhone "Thank you, and we want to thank you for being a valued iPhone customer"... Just thought I'd share.
 
aristotle said:
If HSPA+ is not 4G then LTE shouldn't be called 4G either because most current implementations of LTE in the real world are actually "slower" than HSPA+ and compared to CDMA "3G", it is effectively a generational jump. I might even go as far as stating that CDMA is not really 3G but rather 2.5 G when you consider its limitations and speed.

Give it up already, if CDMA can still be called "3G" then HSPA+ should be called at least 3.5G if not 4G.
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4G is just a marketing term. Proper 4G is still at its infamy.

A carrier here rolled out their 42 mb/s HSPA+ network, no mentions of 4G in their marketing material and only refer to it as mobile broadband.
 
If iPhone 5 has these underwhelming specs I wonder why T-Mobile even bother about the phone? Who would want this slow thing when there are HSPA+ phones from Samsung and HTC on this network capable of doing 42Mbps?
 
tigres said:
If I could get 3G speeds on my 4, i'd be cool with that. But I can't have it in my covered home area- for reasons unknown. I get consistently about <1mb down, and .35 - .65 up.
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Ditto that.

In NYC I'm lucky to see 1mb download speed.

If I'm getting 1 out of a theoretical max of 7 now, will I get 3 out of a theoretical max of 21 with "4G?" :rolleyes:
 
COSWORTH said:
And there go the unlimited ATT data plans, as this will require an eligible 4G data plan, none of which are unlimited
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incorrect. I had iphone 4 switched to infuse 4G and now thrill 4G I never even touched my data plan and still have unlimited while still getting around 10-12 Mbps down.... They keep sending me texts to switch to an elgible 4G plan (there is an unlimited one though)
 
D.T. said:
No problem Chief :D Keep in mind that was several months back (when the Atrix was first released), but I'm assuming the options are the same, though carrier here is the US change their plans weekly it seems.

When I returned my Atrix, I just left the plan the same ("4G Unlimited"), so I should already be good to go for the next iPhone.
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Well, let's hope that remains true for iPhone that currently clobbers their network.

On another thought, as AT&T is on their best behavior currently (they want to buy some company:rolleyes:), maybe they'd be hard pressed to make move as such.
 
tido2012 said:
Yep, I never get above 4 Mbps and I check it quite frequently. My average is actually in 2's (DFW area) It would be nice to consistently get even 7Mbps. It's too bad that they get to classify this as "4G" and force people to upgrade out of their unlimited plans. I'm not too familiar with the networks and speeds but I recall reading that verizon couldn't take advantage of HSPA+ or something about it's 3G speed being slower, does anyone have any info on this? Reason being I was thinking about switching to verizon for the next iphone, because I'll be moving next year and dont know for certain whether AT&T or Verizon will be faster in that area.
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I'm in DFW and easily get 10 Mbps down on my infuse and thrill 4G. Super fast I can only imagine the ihone 5 will be faster,,,
 
I'm confused. So, assuming this true, the new iPhone would see faster speeds on AT&T because Verizon/Sprint doesn't have HSPA+? So it would just be 3G on those networks? Or is their HSPA+ just slower than AT&T?

So confused...
 
Daws001 said:
I'm confused. So, assuming this true, the new iPhone would see faster speeds on AT&T because Verizon/Sprint doesn't have HSPA+? So it would just be 3G on those networks? Or is their HSPA+ just slower than AT&T?

So confused...
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Verizon/Sprint use CDMA...NOT HSPA. So they cannot take advantage of this update.
 
Daws001 said:
I'm confused. So, assuming this true, the new iPhone would see faster speeds on AT&T because Verizon/Sprint doesn't have HSPA+? So it would just be 3G on those networks? Or is their HSPA+ just slower than AT&T?

So confused...
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Verizon and Sprint do not use HSPA+ at all. They use different 3G technology which is slower than HSPA+ (and even HSPA). However both these companies already have 4G netwroks in place (WiMax on Sprint and LTE on Verizon). It appears that iPhone 5 will not have LTE support. We do not know anything about WiMax support yet.
 
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