Learned something new today about phones capable of 4G

[bt22]

Went to my local AT&T store first thing this morning and pre-ordered my iPhone 4GS. Afterwards I stopped by Bestbuy to look at an iPad. I was asking a Bestbuy employee how to Face Time from one iPad to another. During that time a Geek Squad guy stopped and we started talking about phones and the fact AT&T had just sent me an email that my 4GS would not ship for 14 to 21 days. The Geek Squad guy said he had a 4G Android phone and he said he had to pay an extra 10 dollars a month just because his phone was capable of 4G even though Sprint did not offer 4G service within a 100 mile radius. I wonder if that is why Apple did not make the 4GS 4G capable. They knew the service was spotty and didn't want people to have to pay extra just because it was capable even though the service is not available?

 

[JoeG4]

That $10 fee on Sprint started as a "4G fee" but has spread to all of their smartphones. However, even with that fee their prices are usually lower than AT&T and VZW.

 

[mikethebigo]

AT&T only has LTE deployed in 6 cities right now. WiMax is decently spread out but is a dying technology. Verizon is probably pissed though that the iPhone doesn't support their quickly expanding LTE network.

The other problem with 4G is the size of the chip and the drain on battery. Apple was not willing to include this chip in the iPhone because it would increase the phone's thickness and cause other issues. When they implement it in iPhone 6, it will be a much smaller and more power efficient chips than the ones out now.

Also, it's the iPhone 4S, not the iPhone 4GS

 

[CrAkD]

4S Not 4GS. That was annoying when people called the 4 the 4G or 4GS just as annoying now.