Is it possible for apple to convert LTE band 17 to band 12?

[ineel]

The iPhone 5/5S both have band 17 to support at&t's 700Mhz lower B/C blocks. T-Mobile is currently deploying 700Mhz A block for their own LTE network. Band 17 is a sub set (B/C) of the superset band 12 (A/B/C). My question is, can apple push a baseband update or software update of some sort and allow iPhone 5/5s to support band 12? If no, is it a hardware thing that prevents the phone from being able to support band 12?

 

[Newtons Apple]

Hardware.

Even if it were just software, Aplle would push no such update.

 

[maflynn]

My question is, can apple push a baseband update or software update of some sort and allow iPhone 5/5s to support band 12? If no, is it a hardware thing that prevents the phone from being able to support band 12?

Only if the radios inside the phone have programmable frequencies and there's no reason why there would be. In short, no, there is no way to change the frequency by way of a patch.

 

[ineel]

Only if the radios inside the phone have programmable frequencies and there's no reason why there would be. In short, no, there is no way to change the frequency by way of a patch.

I remember reading the iPhone 5 was originally released as supporting only LTE bands 17,4. A few months later they added bands 2,5. Wasn't that a software update? I have a launch day iPhone 5 and I see my phone sitting on LTE band 2 on at&t sometimes.

 

[yeah]

I read on an article from PCMag that the iPhone may be capable of supporting Band 12 through a baseband update. We'll see.

 

[maflynn]

I remember reading the iPhone 5 was originally released as supporting only LTE bands 17,4. A few months later they added bands 2,5. Wasn't that a software update? I have a launch day iPhone 5 and I see my phone sitting on LTE band 2 on at&t sometimes.

I didn't see that article so I can't say.

As I mentioned if its already built into the radio, then a patch can be sent, but I'm unaware if they actually did that.

 

[zorinlynx]

I remember reading the iPhone 5 was originally released as supporting only LTE bands 17,4. A few months later they added bands 2,5. Wasn't that a software update? I have a launch day iPhone 5 and I see my phone sitting on LTE band 2 on at&t sometimes.

How do you obtain info on what bands the phone is using? That would be interesting to find out.

 

[Woochifer]

There might be a means, but that doesn't mean that Apple will. To get some idea of what Apple might do, you just need to look at what they did last year with the iPhone 5. When T-Mobile came on board, the GSM iPhone 5 sold through AT&T did not support all of T-Mobile's Band 4 (AWS) services. Apparently, it was enabled for LTE on Band 4, but not for AWS WCDMA (a 3G service that T-Mobile still uses for "4G"/HSPA+).

Apple made a running change to the model A1428 iPhone 5 that enabled AWS WCDMA. According to Anandtech, this only required a modem firmware update that unlocked the feature. At that time, they speculated whether this update would be pushed to all other model A1428 iPhone 5 units already sold.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6860/...hone-5-with-aws-wcdma-enabled-for-tmobile-usa

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6866/test-iphone5-tmo

We now know that Apple never issued any updates to the older iPhone 5 modems, even though the hardware can support AWS WCDMA. So, even though the model A1428 iPhones had identical hardware and FCC approvals, there remains a large number of early production units that will drop down to 2G/EDGE speeds in non-LTE areas because they don't have the AWS WCDMA support needed to enable "4G"/HSPA+.

Based on how they handled the iPhone 5, I seriously doubt that Apple will issue any kind of update that would enable Band 12 for T-Mobile customers using the iPhone 5/5c/5s. The hardware support might indeed be there, but that doesn't mean anything if the modem firmware does not enable it.

 

[Truefan31]

That's why I'm getting the 6. Hopefully it has band 12 support